Categories
2008-2009 Specials Doctor Who New Series Season 04

The End Of Time – Part 2

Doctor WhoThe Master has twisted the Immortality Gate into his own weapon, projecting himself as a template onto every human on Earth: every human on Earth is now the Master. The two aliens working undercover in Naismith’s operation are unaffected, and Wilfred is unaffected as well, stuck in the Master’s isolation booth. But the only other human not possessed by the Master is Donna Noble, whose adventures with the Doctor are flooding back into her mind. Wilfred urges her to run, but soon the amount of information crowding her human brain causes her to collapse. The Master interrogates the Doctor, demanding to know the whereabouts of the TARDIS, but this grueling interrogation is soon interrupted by the two aliens, who teleport themselves, the Doctor and Wilfred to their ship in orbit.

An alien artifact arrives on Earth, a piece of the extinct world of Gallifrey, and only then does the Master realize what the drumbeat in his head is: the rhythm of a Time Lord’s hearts. The Master uses this piece of Gallifrey to establish a link, and the entire planet of Gallifrey materializes close enough to Earth that tidal forces begin tearing the smaller planet apart. The Time Lords, desperate to escape their imminent doom in the Time War, have broken free by sending their distress signal – the drumbeat – back in time. They created the Master and made him a madman, all to compel him to provide an escape route for Gallifrey. The Lord President and members of the High Council of the Time Lords arrive on Earth, where the Master demands their obedience and just as quickly discovers that the Lord President is ready to eliminate him: the Master has served his purpose where the Time Lords are concerned. The Doctor cuts Gallifrey’s link to Earth as the Master and the Time Lord President do battle; the planet of the Time Lords disappears again, taking the Master with it.

But it is only after the crisis is averted that the Doctor realizes that the prophecy of his own death has nothing to do with the Time Lords or the Master.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), John Simm (The Master), Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott), Timothy Dalton (Lord President), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Freema Agyeman (Martha Smith-Jones), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Jessica Hynes (Verity Newman), June Whitfield (Minnie Hooper), Claire Bloom (The Woman), Thomas Knight (Luke Smith), Russell Tovey (Midshipman Frame), David Harewood (Joshua Naismith), Tracy Ifeachor (Abigail Naismith), Lawry Lewin (Rossiter), Sinead Keenan (Addams), Joe Dixon (The Chancellor), Julie LeGrand (The Partisan), Brid Brennan (The Visionary), Karl Collins (Shaun Temple), Krystal Archer (Nerys), Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells), Paul Kasey (Ood Sigma), Ruari Mears (Elder Ood), Silas Carson (voice of Ood Sigma), Nicholas Briggs (voice of Judoon), Dan Starkey (Sontaran), Matt Smith (The Doctor)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

The Eleventh Hour

Doctor WhoFollowing the Doctor’s regeneration, the TARDIS plummets back to Earth, damaged and out of control. The time machine comes to rest in the 1990s, where the Doctor has to seek the help of the first person he finds – namely, a little girl named Amelia Pond who is home alone. In exchange for her help, the Doctor investigates something that’s been troubling Amelia: a crack in her wall through which she says she can hear voices. It turns out that her fears aren’t unfounded: the Doctor finds something from another dimension behind her wall, but he seals the crack and seems fairly sure he’s solved the problem. He promises to return in five minutes; Amelia packs a bag and sits in her garden, waiting for the TARDIS and the mysterious Doctor to return…

The TARDIS rematerializes in the garden, but it’s been only moments for the Doctor – he’s just realized the significance of the crack in the wall. But 12 years have passed for Amy Pond – and for the being behind her bedroom wall. The Doctor finds a door where no door should be in Amy’s house, containing a being known only as Prisoner Zero, which then escapes. As the Doctor works to find the dangerous escapee, Earth receives a signal from an alien race called the Atraxi: if the people of Earth cannot contain Prisoner Zero, the Atraxi will wipe out all life on the planet, just to make sure the escaped prisoner is dealt with. There are only 20 minutes left to save the world, and the Doctor isn’t exactly in peak condition…

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Adam Smith
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Wiliams), Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia Pond), Nina Wadia (Dr. Ramsden), Marcello Magni (Barney Collins), Perry Benson (Ice Cream Man), Annette Crosbie (Mrs. Angelo), Tom Hopper (Jeff), Arthur Cox (Mr. Henderson), Olivia Coleman (Mother), Eden Monteath (Child 1), Merin Monteath (Child 2), David de Keyser (Atraxi voice), William Wilde (Prisoner Zero voice), Patrick Moore (himself)

The eleventh DoctorNotes: The lightning and thunderclaps in the new opening titles hearken back to the very origins of Doctor Who; the unaired pilot version of An Unearthly Child featured thunderclaps in the theme music, though these were removed before the remount of the series’ first-ever episode. The redesigned TARDIS exterior resembles the police box as seen in the two Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies in the 1960s, while the new set for the TARDIS console room includes elements that recall the early William Hartnell stories (the large metallic light fixture above the console), the Davison/Colin Baker era TARDIS (a sound effect that occurs several times in The Eleventh Hour’s final scenes) and even the TARDIS as seen in the 1996 TV movie (the scanner screen as an old TV hanging above the console). Caitlin Blackwood is a good fit as young Amy because she’s Karen Gillan’s cousin in real life.

A made-for-DVD short, Meanwhile In The TARDIS, bridges the gap between The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below; it’s a bonus feature on the series 5 DVD box set.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

The Beast Below

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Amy happen upon an enormous vehicle in deep space in the 29th century: the Starship UK, a spaceborne version of the entire country. But the Doctor instantly senses that something isn’t right: the population of the Starship UK is silently living in fear. Amy discovers that something alive – and alien – is aboard the vessel, but she is then captured by robed monks and shown a history of the ship, a history which she is then asked to protest or forget. The Doctor arrives, and he and Amy discover that the survival of the British people in the future has come at a horrifying price to an innocent life form. But if Amy doesn’t stop the Doctor from taking further action, the price may become even higher.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Andrew Gunn
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Sophie Okonedo (Liz 10), Terence Hardiman (Hawthorne), Hannah Sharp (Mandy), Alfie Field (Timmy), Christopher GoodMorgan), David Ajala (Peter), Catrin Richards (Poem Girl), Jonathan Battersby (Winder), Chris Porter (voice of Smilers / Winder), Ian McNeice (Churchill)

The Beast BelowNotes: Oscar-winning actress Sophie Okonedo makes her second Doctor Who “appearance” here; her first was in animated form in the 2003 BBCi webcast Scream Of The Shalka. Though unrelated to this episode, an episode was developed by writer Pat Mills in the 1980s, though never produced, called Song Of The Space Whale; that unused script was itself reworked into one of Big Finish Productions’ “Lost Stories” audio releases as The Song Of Megaptera in May 2010, starring Colin Baker (as it would have on TV).

A made-for-DVD short, Meanwhile In The TARDIS, bridges the gap between The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below; it’s a bonus feature on the series 5 DVD box set.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

Victory Of The Daleks

Doctor WhoThe Doctor is summoned to wartime London during the Blitz. None other than Winston Churchill himself has called the Doctor for help, but with the TARDIS’ unreliability, it’s taken the Doctor a month to answer that call – and in the meantime, Churchill has turned elsewhere for help in the war effort. Professor Bracewell has designed mobile war machines of immense power, capable of picking off German bombing formations before a single bomb can be dropped. Bracewell and Churchill call them “Ironsides,” but the Doctor knows them all too well as the last remaining Daleks – and he’s puzzled that Amy can’t remember ever having seen a Dalek, even after Earth was invaded by them. But these Daleks insist that they are soldiers, here to protect Britain from the Germans. In order to get them to reveal their true plan, the Doctor will have to do something very dangerous indeed: provoke the Daleks into showing their true, deadly colors.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Mark Gatiss
directed by Andrew Gunn
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Ian McNeice (Churchill), Bill Paterson (Bracewell), Nina de Cosimo (Blanche), Tim Wallers (Childers), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek 1), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek 2), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice), Susanah Fielding (Lilian), James Albrecht (Todd), Colin Prockter (Air Raid Warden)

Victory Of The DaleksNotes: This isn’t the first time that the Daleks have pretended to be servants of the human race; they launched a very similar scheme in the future on Vulcan, a human colony planet, in the first Patrick Troughton story, Power Of The Daleks; incidentally, their aim there was also to power up the production line on a new race of Daleks. Churchill says that the Doctor has changed his face “again,” which implies that he’s met at least two of the Doctor’s previous incarnations, though we don’t know which ones. This marks the first new series reference to the Doctor’s TARDIS being a Type 40 model (a statistic dating back to the original series, first mentioned in The Deadly Assassin during Tom Baker’s reign), as well as the first new series reference to the Daleks’ time corridor technology (Resurrection Of The Daleks).

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

Time Of The Angels

Doctor WhoAn artifact in a museum catches the Doctor’s eye: a message is written in the Old High Gallifreyan language on its surface, a message in an extinct language meant just for him. The message leads him to a set of coordinates in time and space where he has seconds to rescue River Song after she ejects herself from an airlock aboard the starship Byzantium – a ship she still wants to follow. When the TARDIS next materializes, it’s on an alien planet where the Byzantium has crashed, killing all aboard… all except for a lone Weeping Angel. The Doctor only has moments to bring Amy up to speed on the Angel’s deadly abilities, but it’s already wreaking havoc. And as the Doctor and Amy join River’s expedition to board the Byzantium and destroy the Angel, it soon becomes apparent that it is the expedition that’s outnumbered.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Adam Smith
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Alex Kingston (River Song), Simon Dutton (Alistair), Mike Skinner (Security Guard), Iain Glen (Octavian), Mark Springer (Christian), Troy Glasgow (Angelo), David Atkins (Bob), Darren Morfitt (Marco)

Time Of The AngelsNotes: River Song returns in this episode; Silence In The Library and Forest Of The Dead are still in her future, but have already happened for the Doctor (in his tenth incarnation). She has, however, seen pictures of all of the Doctor’s faces. The Weeping Angels make their first appearance since season 3’s Hugo-winning Blink; along with Silence / Forest, Blink was written by Steven Moffat as a freelance writer during Russell T. Davies’ tenure as showrunner. The Old High Gallifreyan language was first mentioned in 1983’s The Five Doctors; all of the Doctor’s incarnations have been fluent in it, and presumably he passed that knowledge along to River Song; even upon its first mention in 1983, it’s implied that the language had fallen into infrequent use even among the Time Lords themselves.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

Flesh And Stone

Doctor WhoSurrounded by an army of statues – decayed Angels who are reawakening and gathering strength from the leaking radiation of the Byzantium’s main drive – the Doctor has to take drastic measures to keep River Song, Amy and the rest of the expedition alive, and the Angels are never far behind. A crack appears in the wall of the Byzantium’s flight deck – the same crack seen in Amy’s childhood bedroom – and the Doctor suspects that something is going horribly wrong with time itself. Amy begins unconsciously counting down from ten aloud, and the Doctor discovers that she has looked into the eyes of a Weeping Angel long enough for the Angels to use Amy’s eyes to monitor the expedition’s movements; this mental link is also killing Amy slowly, and the Doctor has to ask her to close her eyes and keep them closed, cutting the Angels off from the information they need and prolonging her own life. River Song’s part in the expedition is revealed as well: she’s not the expedition’s leader, but a convicted killer (whose victim was the “best man” she’s ever known) taking on a dangerous assignment to win a pardon from her sentence. The expedition soldiers begin vanishing one by one, consumed by the ever-expanding crack, from which Amy instinctively knows they won’t be coming back. The Doctor fights to come up with a solution that will keep his friends and allies alive, and all the while, the army of Angels closes in…

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Adam Smith
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Alex Kingston (River Song), Iain Glen (Octavian), David Atkins (Bob), Darren Morfitt (Marco), Mark Monero (Pedro), George Russo (Phillip)

Notes: River Song mentions that the Doctor will next see her “when the Pandorica opens” – an event that has already happened in her timeline.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

The Vampires Of Venice

Doctor WhoThe Doctor returns Amy to her own time, and decides to take her and her fiancee Rory on a romantic getaway – namely, Venice in 1580. But almost as soon as the TARDIS brings them there, it’s obvious that something is amiss. Venice is under the thrall of the reclusive House of Calvierri, from whose elite school no pupil ever returns. The father of one girl who has been enrolled in this school is demanding to see proof that his daughter is alive and well, and his demands are met with threats of violence. The Doctor and Amy both see members of the Calvierri inner circle reveal vampire-like teeth, but the despite all the traditional signs of vampires – no reflections in a mirror, sharp teeth, drinking blood – the Doctor thinks these vampires are actually aliens. When he discovers a plan to repopulate a nearly-extinct species by transforming Earth into a suitable environment, the Doctor may be left with no choice but to ensure their extinction to save humanity.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Toby Whithouse
directed by Jonny Campbell
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory), Helen McCrory (Rosanna), Lucian Msamati (Guido), Alisha Bailey (Isabella), Alex Price (Francesco), Gabrielle Wilde (Vampire Girl), Hannah Steele (Vampire Girl), Elizabeth Croft (Vampire Girl), Sonila Vieshta (Vampire Girl), Gabrielle Montaraz (Vampire Girl), Michael Percival (Inspector), Simon Gregor (Steward)

The Vampires of VeniceNotes: This episode marks the first appearance of the ninth and tenth Doctors’ psychic paper in the eleventh Doctor’s possession. He also has a library card, under the name of Dr. J. Smith, bearing a photo of his first incarnation. The Doctor has visited Venice in previous incarnation in a variety of audio stories; the fourth Doctor has a fateful encounter with alien insects there in Hornets’ Nest: A Sting In The Tale, while the eighth Doctor visited Venice in the future in The Stones Of Venice. With the exception of a few background shots, none of this episode was actually filmed in Venice itself; a city in Croatia proved to be a more cost-effective location, with a variety of lighting tricks and digital effects evoking the look of Venice. The documentary series Doctor Who Confidential, however, did take Matt Smith and writer Toby Whithouse on location to Venice, stirring up election-year controversy over whether the BBC was making the best use of the funds it gets from the British public via the televison license tax.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

Amy’s Choice

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS lands in upper Leadworth, outside the home of former TARDIS travelers Rory and Amy, who are now expecting their first child. The Doctor is pleased to see them both, they’re both perplexed to see him, and the excitement of the impromptu reunion lulls them all to sleep. They wake up aboard the TARDIS, still traveling together and decidedly not expecting a baby, mystified by what must surely be a dream. A being called the Dream Lord appears, demanding that the three travelers choose between the reality they’ve just seen, and the reality of travel in the TARDIS. The time travelers slip back and forth disconcertingly between the increasingly strange earthbound setting and the Doctor’s timeship, which is growing increasingly cold. The Dream Lord insists that time is running out… and the one person who can decide which scenario is real isn’t the Doctor, but Amy.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Simon Nye
directed by Catherine Morshead
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Toby Jones (Dream Lord), Nick Hobbs (Mr. Nainby), Joan Linder (Mrs. Hamill), Audrey Ardington (Mrs. Poggit)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

The Hungry Earth

Doctor WhoThe Doctor tries yet again to take Rory and Amy on a romantic getaway, but instead of Rio, the TARDIS lands in Wales in 2020, near the site of a project to drill deep through the Earth’s crust. One man has already vanished without a trace from the small drilling operation, and other strange things are happening as well, such as patches of blue grass appearing on the surface. The rig’s owners hope this is a sign of a promising subsurface mineral deposit, but the Doctor can immediately tell it’s something else. When Amy disappears, his suspicions are confirmed: the drill has awakened the Silurians, the bipedal reptiles who roamed Earth before the ascent of humankind… and they’re more than wiling to take hostages to announce their presence prior to reclaiming their world. The Doctor and Nasreen Chaudrhy, the project’s chief researcher, go underground in the TARDIS to recover Amy and the other hostages, while the one Silurian that the Doctor and Rory can capture has plans of her own. Unlike the Doctor’s plan, her strategy doesn’t involve the human race’s better nature.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Ashley Way
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory), Neve McIntosh (Alaya), Meera Syal (Nasreen Chaudhry), Robert Pugh (Tony Mack), Nia Roberts (Ambrose), Alun Rglan (Mo), Samuel Davies (Elliot)

Notes: This isn’t the first time that the Doctor has stumbled across industrial activity in Wales that uncovered something nasty: the third Doctor had to shut down Global Chemicals’ operation in 1973’s The Green Death; that incarnation of the Doctor also encountered the Silurians in Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) and their aquatic relatives in 1972’s The Sea Devils.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

Cold Blood

Doctor WhoSilurian warrior Alaya is counting on her human captors’ animal bloodlust: she expects to be killed, and her resulting martyrdom will remove any objections among her own people to declaring war on humanity. Rory tries his best to keep a lid on the growing tensions between Alaya and the humans, but he can’t guard her every moment, and soon enough Alaya gets her wish. Beneath the Earth’s surface, the Doctor and Nasreen discover that Amy and the other vanished humans are alive and well, and that there are both sympathetic and warlike factions among the Silurians. He tries to get peace talks started between the two dominant species of Earth, but he may not be able to keep the warrior faction’s ambitions quelled when Alaya’s body is returned. Stopping an all-out war now will come at an agonizing cost.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Ashley Way
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory), Neve McIntosh (Alaya / Restac), Meera Syal (Nasreen Chaudhry), Robert Pugh (Tony Mack), Nia Roberts (Ambrose), Richard Hope (Malohken), Stephen Moore (Eldane), Alun Raglan (Mo), Samuel Davies (Elliot)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

Vincent And The Doctor

Doctor WhoAt an exhibit of Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork, the Doctor thinks he’s spotted – in a painting – evidence that an alien creature that may have been stalking the Earth in Van Gogh’s time. The next stop for the TARDIS is in Provence, where something has indeed been claiming the lives of numerous people – and Van Gogh, considered a crazy outsider, has been blamed for the deaths. The Doctor and Amy offer to help, but how can the Doctor save any lives when Vincent is the only one to actually see the alien creature? And will helping Vincent fight the beast change the painter’s own future?

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Richard Curtis
directed by Jonny Campbell
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Tony Curran (Vincent), Nik Howden (Maurice), Chrissie Cotterill (Mother), Sarah Counsell (Waitress), Morgan Overton (School Child), Andrew Byrne (School Child), Bill Nighy (Dr. Black)

Vincent and the DoctorNotes: Guest star Bill Nighy – whose name was not shown in the end credits of the episode – was, at one time, considered the hot contender for the role of the Doctor when the series’ return was still in pre-production (in fact, one prominent British newspaper announced that Nighy was picked for the role of the ninth Doctor). He has featured in the Harry Potter film series and appeared as Slartibartfast in the 2005 film adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Oscar-nominated writer Richard Curtis penned the screenplays for Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Love, Actually; prior to his film career, however, Curtis wrote or co-write every episode of Blackadder, starring Rowan Atkinson, who would play another ninth Doctor in the 1999 Comic Relief spoof The Curse Of Fatal Death (written, coincidentally, by one Steven Moffat). Curtis also founded the Comic Relief charity.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

The Lodger

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS lands on Earth, only the Doctor isn’t expecting it to land there. When he steps out the door, the TARDIS practically ejects him – and then dematerializes with Amy aboard. The Doctor is able to contact Amy and deduces that something is preventing the TARDIS from making a full landing. The Doctor decides to rent a room from an affable bloke named Craig, who spends most of his time trying to overcome his fear of telling his friend Sophie that he has romantic feelings for her. But that’s far from the worst of Craig’s problems: a slowly spreading stain on the ceiling accompanies a recurring series of strange noises from whoever is renting the upstairs room. The Doctor is convinced that whatever is making the noise and the stain is also keeping the TARDIS from landing. As he spends several days at the house, the Doctor impresses Craig’s other friends, meets Sophie, and becomes a constant but still strange fixture in Craig’s life. When Craig decides to throw caution to the wind and investigate the room upstairs, that life may come to a quick and unpleasant end if the Doctor can’t intervene.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Gareth Roberts
directed by Catherine Morshead
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), James Corden (Craig), Daisy Haggard (Sophie), Owen Donovan (Steven), Babatunde Aleshe (Sean), Jem Wall (Michael), Karen Seacombe (Sandra), Kamara Bacchus (Clubber)

The LodgerNotes: This episode is based on a comic by the same name that appeared in an issue of Doctor Who Magazine, originally centered around the tenth Doctor and Mickey Smith (with a very brief appearance by Rose) and set shortly after The Christmas Invasion; in that version of the story, of course, the Doctor moved in with Mickey, who would’ve rather been spending more uninterrupted time with Rose. When the Doctor telepathically transfers his knowledge to Craig, his fifth, sixth and seventh incarnations are not shown (whereas it’s the second appearance this season for the second Doctor, and the season’s third visual reference to the first Doctor).

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

The Pandorica Opens

Doctor WhoA series of events ripples through time and space upon the completion of Vincent Van Gogh‘s latest painting depicting the fiery destruction of the TARDIS. Many of the Doctor’s friends and allies encounter the painting through time, from Winston Churchill to Liz 10 to, finally, River Song. River draws the Doctor to Earth at the time of the Roman Empire to show him the painting, which she believes is a warning Van Gogh received in a vision. Within the painting itself is a time and a location, leading the Doctor, Amy and River to Stonehenge.

The Doctor finds a chamber beneath Stonehenge, containing a large, cubical object of alien origin: the Pandorica, something which River has mentioned before but the Doctor believed was a myth. But before the Doctor can investigate or open the Pandorica, dozens of alien ships descend into the sky over Stonehenge: many of the Doctor’s enemies have come to call. While he bluffs his would-be captors into leaving, River attempts to move the TARDIS closer to the Pandorica, but the timeship begins behaving erratically and is flung violently through the time vortex. It begins to seem as though the Doctor is destined not to be at the controls of the TARDIS when it suffers the fate forseen by Van Gogh.

The Doctor’s enemies return to Stonehenge, and only then does the Doctor realize the horrifying truth: the Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and many more have set aside their differences to conspire against their greatest enemy. With their combined forces against him, the Doctor may be doomed, and the universe along with him.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Toby Haynes
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Alex Kingston (River Song), Arthur Darvill (Rory), Tony Curran (Vincent), Bill Paterson (Bracewell), Ian McNeice (Winston Churchill), Sophie Okonedo (Liz Ten), Marcus O’Donovan (Claudio), Clive Wood (Commander), Christopher Ryan (Commander Stark), Ruari Mears (Cyber Leader), Paul Kasey (Judoon), Howard Lee (Doctor Gachet), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek), Simon Fisher Becker (Dorium), Joe Jacobs (Guard), Chrissie Cotterill (Madame Vernet), David Fynn (Marcellus), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek / Cyberman / Judoon voices)

The Pandorica OpensNotes: This marks the first time Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans have all shared the screen in anything other than a flashback (if one wishes to count flashbacks, however, the first time would have been during the flashbacks experienced by the fourth Doctor at the end of part 4 of Logopolis). Classic Doctor Who aliens name-checked but not seen include Drahvins (Galaxy Four), Zygons (Terror Of The Zygons), and curiously, the Chelonians, a reptilian warrior race introduced in the New Adventures novels published in the 1990s (specifically, in “The Highest Science”). This marks the first time that an element specific to the New Adventures has been acknowledged by the new TV series. The Slitheen are also mentioned, but are not seen.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 05

The Big Bang

Doctor WhoTrapped in the Pandorica by his enemies, the Doctor is powerless to prevent the universe from ending. The collapse isn’t instantaneous, and Earth is at the epicenter, growing cold and dark as every star in the universe vanishes. Young Amelia Pond remembers the stars, though, despite what everyone tells her as the changes ripple backward through time.

Freed from the Pandorica, the Doctor embarks on an elaborate attempt to manipulate the timeline; while Earth still exists, he can influence its history and make changes to the present. But he’ll need help, and there’s where the problem lies: Amy is dead, River has probably died in the cataclysmic explosion that has ripped the TARDIS apart, and Rory isn’t who anyone thought he was. Time is running out, even for the Time Lord.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Toby Haynes
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Alex Kingston (River Song), Arthur Darvill (Rory), Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia), Susan Vidler (Aunt Sharon), Frances Ashman (Christine), Barnaby Edwards (Stone Dalek), William Pretsell (Dave), Halcro Johnston (Mr. Pond), Karen Westwood (Tabetha), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice)

Notes: Notes for this episode could spoil major elements of the story, so you’ll find the notes below.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 06

The Impossible Astronaut

Doctor Who2011: Amy and Rory (having settled into life on Earth following their honeymoon) and River Song (still in her stormcage prison) receive numbered invitations consisting only of a date and a place. The place is the American plains, where the Doctor – presumably the sender of the invitations – awaits. But to their horror, an astronaut – clad in a vintage Apollo spacesuit – emerges from a body of water and shoots the Doctor, triggering his regeneration. The astronaut then shoots the Doctor again, killing him before the regeneration is completed, and returns to the water. An elderly man named Canton Delaware III appears, bearing his own numbered invitation and convenient means for disposing of the Doctor’s body. The Doctor’s stunned companions then discover the Time Lord alive and well, blissfully unaware of what’s just happened – in his own future, of which they can divulge nothing.

1969: A scant trail of clues leads the time travelers to the White House, mere months before the launch of Apollo 11. President Richard Nixon has been receiving strange phone calls, almost always on a phone line that happens to be nearest wherever he is, from a child terrified of a spaceman who has appeared nearby. Despite the Secret Service’s lack of enthusiasm about the four apparently British visitors who have popped into the Oval Office without warning, the Doctor appoints himself the chief investigator of the case of the mysterious phone calls. He deduces the location from which the phone calls must be coming, and with a younger Canton Delaware III aboard the TARDIS, goes to find the child who’s placing the calls.

At the White House, Amy sees a creature – a creature of which she saw only a glimpse in 2011. At the abandoned warehouse from which the calls are being placed, Rory and River both see the creatures as well. There’s only one problem: they’re fully aware of who the Doctor is, and of the fate he will suffer. And anyone who sees them, once they look away, doesn’t remember having seen them. Are these the assassins who have killed the last of the Time Lords?

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Toby Haynes
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory), Alex Kingston (River Song), Mark Sheppard (Canton Delaware), William Morgan Sheppard (old Canton Delaware), Marnix van den Broeke (The Silent), Stuart Milligan (President Richard Nixon), Chuk Iwuji (Carl), Mark Griffin (Phil), Sydney Wade (Little Girl), Nancy Baldwin (Joy), Kieran O’Connor (Prison Guard), Adam Napier (Captain Simmons), Henrietta Clemett (Matilda), Paul Critoph (Charles), Emilio Aquino (Busboy)

Notes: The interior of the alien spacecraft was glimpsed last season in The Lodger. The TARDIS has landed as an invisible object before, in 1968’s The Invasion, though the second Doctor was able to find both the time machine and its entrance a bit more gracefully in that story. Guest star William Morgan Sheppard – often credited as W. Morgan Sheppard in the U.S. and as Morgan Sheppard in the U.K. – has guest starred on nearly every genre series under the sun, from several “generations” of Star Trek, Babylon 5, seaQuest and more, to a memorable regular role on Max Headroom in both its British and American incarnations. He is the real father of actor Mark Sheppard, of whose character he portrays a much older version. Mark Sheppard is familiar to followers of such series as Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, The Middleman, Warehouse 13 and Firefly. Where both the Sheppards were born in the U.K., Stuart Milligan was born in Boston and has portrayed several Presidents of the United States during a career which has seen him do much of his television work in Britain.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green