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Reviews
Doctor Who: The Time of Angels (2010)
Now that's more like it
Last week I wrote I scything review of the previous two episodes, and I am delighted to say that this one is much better. Firstly, and most importantly, the plot actually makes sense, and despite a few repeated ideas from previous episodes, it is generally quite original too.
Thankfully, unlike the previous two episodes, there is no awful plot to distract you from appreciating the episode. We have a repeat of the quirky, amusing Amy Pond (in contrast to the previous two episodes), who really is a incredible character, and an episode where Matt Smith is really able to show his true colours.
There are some genuine scares rather than the comical attempts at them that we have become used to, and the episode moves at a much better pace thanks to being a two-parter.
I started watching this episode being very pessimistic about how good it would be thanks to the previous two, but I am glad to say that I really enjoyed it. In fact, despite an element of predictability (though only slight), it really was fantastic.
For those of you, like me, who hated the previous few episodes, you will find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Doctor Who: Victory of the Daleks (2010)
Someone needs to get fired
I want to make it clear: I loved the first episode of the new series. I thought that the plot was fantastic, realistic (in Doctor Who terms) and original. I thought that Amy as a character was fantastic, and felt that her history with the Doctor, the fact that she was about to get married, and her style (things like locking the Doctor's tie in a door) could lead to some excellent episodes in the future.
However, the previous episode and this one have both been highly flawed with scripts that don't make sense (why would the Daleks wait to destroy Earth - once they had the Doctor's voice, shouldn't that have been it? Why would the Daleks retreat before killing the Doctor?; What were the smilers there for? What was the point of the "half-smilers"? What was the point of Amy discovering the creature in the tent? Why would kids be "sent below" if they misbehaved when all the creature was was an engine, and they wouldn't be eaten anyway? Why of all countries would technologically advanced England be the last to leave Earth?), and both have been highly repetitive: they both ended with Amy saving the day in a completely un-Amy-like way judging by the first episode, before making a passionate appeal showing what seems to be her love for the Doctor (judging by the side glance when talking about forgiven loves); both saw Amy left behind and side-lined (told she would be taken home in Beasts Below; left behind on Earth in this episode) with little protest compared to her actions in The Eleventh Hour. This series also seems to be rushing to quickly to bring back all the old characters (Daleks in only episode 3, River Song and the weepers in the same episode)! Have the writers run out of new ideas? Also it seems that almost every episode in this series will be set on Earth (past, present or future).
What happened to the Doctor's voyages anywhere in the universe? And more importantly, what happened to the clever, original, sense-making plots that we saw in the Eleventh Hour and in David Tennant's era? And what happened to the episodes where virtually anything could happen, and where your natural reaction was cowering in fear and not smirking or scowling at stupid scenes? I am hoping that next week's will be better, but this episode has, for the second week in a row, made me very disappointed.