Doctor Who thoughts

Trying out Blogger's new app ( unfortunately not an iPad one).

So, at the end of the God Complex (clever title that) the Doctor takes Amy and Rory to a house on a road that looks very familiar (also whatever happened to their home in Leadworth?). Its very similar to the road seen in the Lodger, where one house had 3 stories. The third story was actually a ship in disguise - a special TARDIS-like ship that could only be piloted by Timelordy people. And at the end of this week's episode, Amy asks the Doctor to get her daughter, River, to visit sometime. And River is sort of Timelordy.

So was the ship in the Lodger River's perhaps?

Anyway, lets see if this works...

Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Middle Men

Again, another week of mostly padding.

I know I keep missing out every other week with these Torchwood reviews but mainly it's because half of each episode feels unnecessary. I get the feeling this all would've made a marvellous 5-part mini-series whereas instead we get something that's... okay, I guess.

for instance, this week we found out that, yes, they do cremate the Category 1s - which we already knew about the week before. Meanwhile Mr. "Bad-mitten" and his rather short, puny-looking marine sidekick tried to cover things up whilst getting more and more depressed/mental.

Oh and Gwen's family got kidnapped (off screen, I might add). That was after Gwen somehow found some explosives just lying around (as you do!) and blew up the facility containing all the Welsh Category 1s. Which, I guess, saves PhiCorp from transporting them to the incinerators!

I suppose the team did put their recordings of everything that happened on the 'net so now everyone knows what's happening to the Cat 1s. This doesn't seem to be PhiCorp's fault though - it's the government that decided this.

Meanwhile, what's happened to poor old omni-sexual (not gay!) Captain Jack? I know he's now mortal and therefore vulnerable but you'd think he'd do a bit more than just sit behind a keyboard or slap waiters' bottoms.

Another things that bugs me is how 'death' is inconsistently portrayed. We've seen one guy burnt and blown to bits, his head cut off, with no lungs and yet he was still conscious. We've seen a woman's neck snapped and turned 180 degrees but she's still able to walk. And yet lately we've had people strangled and then fall unconscious, or shot and then left for dead, or have a heart attack and be considered "brain dead".

Anyway, next week's episode looks a little more interesting as we see a bit more of Jack's past. And Gwen decides to use Jack to get her family back.

Me, I'm just waiting to find out who's behind all this and what they've got against Jack.

Game Of Thrones

Still jetting off the Glasgow each week but, due to a generous work colleague who also shares these trips, I've now watched the first series of Game of Thrones. And it was excellent!

Sure, things sort of meandered a little in the middle, but episode 7 turned things around and from then on it was a wonderful sprint to the finish. In fact, I was somewhat surprised I'd reached the last episode (I hadn't realised there were only 10 episodes) and so felt a bit 'robbed' when the end came. I want more!

Like the books, I think the first half of this season suffered a little from having lots and lots of different characters split across a variety of locations. It took a while to get a hang of who was who and where events were happening. But, as mentioned, by about two-thirds of the way through things started to click into place.

And, like the books, no character is safe from the chop!

All the actors are great in their roles and none let the side down (although, perhaps, Lena Headey's Cersei does not come across as well as the others). The locations look wonderfully lavish and there's a real sense of suspense and intrigue.

Let's hope the second season arrives sooner rather than later.

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Rendition

This second episode wasn't quite as explosively entertaining as the first episode but was reasonable enough, I guess. Most of the action took place on board a plane with Gwen and Jack taken prisoner by the CIA. I guess it served as a way to show the viewers and Rex that there are some shady people in his organisation who are out to kill, rather than question, Torchwood. Otherwise though, it felt a little like padding. At times I couldn't tell whether the artificially-frantic treatment of Jack's poisoning was supposed to be amusing or serious or both. It just seemed a little silly.

Again, I felt that the acting from a number of the actors was, well, okay I suppose. I like Rex and Jack is always fun to watch. But even Gwen seemed a little off this time. Esther still doesn't convince though.

I guess this episode was setting a few things into motion - Rex's and Esther's split from the corrupt CIA, Oswald's rise to fame (and eventual cult status), Jack's mortality, the introduction of PhiCorp - whilst continuing to ask how the world would cope.

And who is Jilly Kitzinger? She appears to be touting herself differently to different people - first as a PR guru to Oswald then as an employee of PhiCorp. Red seems to be her colour - she's not supposed to be some sort of devil figure, is she?

So, not a bad episode and I'll continue to watch Torchwood until the end, but nothing incredibly exciting either. And although the mini-series format seems to suit Torchwood, I do sometimes mourn the loss of standalone episodes.

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Episode #1

Well, you can tell it's now American.

The first half of this new episode of Torchwood seemed a bit like a tacky, CSI-like thriller. The pace and cutting was faster than before and there were a fair number of explosions. And, again, annoying zoom shoots of the mouths of multiple newsreaders were used near the beginning to highlight the shock of 'Miracle Day'. So thank goodness for the earmuff-wearing baby as Gwen shot at a helicopter outside her window after being reintroduced to Captain Jack!

It was at the point about half way through when Rex, the injured CIA agent, travelled across to Wales when things picked up for me. In fact, if it wasn't for Rex's tough, gruff, get-stuck-in attitude together with his dry wit then all of the American newcomers would've been somewhat bland and forgettable.

By the end of the episode though, I found I was quite enjoying the show. I have no idea how they'll run with the same mystery for another 9 episodes (mind you, other US shows have extended single mysteries over longer seasons in the past) but I reckon it'll be pretty entertaining. And I'll be interested in discovering why Jack is now vulnerable whilst everyone else is unkillable, why he came back to Earth after leaving at the end of the last series, who sent the Torchwood email that seemed to start this thing off and why some group is sending helicopters and suicide bombers to kill Jack and Gwen. Plus, it looks like we'll get to see more of Bill Pullman's creepy character Oswald the child killer.

Let's hope they stop using the "456" designation for almost everything though.

When is Miracle Day?

Very quickly, it looks like we have a confirmed date when the BBC is going to show Torchwood: Miracle Day. The first episode will be on Thursday 14th July (3 days after my birthday). Hoorah!

Also, the Daily Blam has an 11 minute behind-the-scenes featurette.

That is all.

Doctor Who: A Good Man Goes To War

I'm back - and of course one of the first things I did after getting back off holiday (other than putting on a load of washing) was to watch the midseason cliffhanger to Doctor Who. Better late than ever! And, wow, was it a good one.

Right from the brilliant pre-title sequence with a very authoritive Rory and the re-introduction of the Cybermen, this was a rollercoaster ride with the Doctor - plus a few helpful aides - at war with those who took Amy and her baby. There were some fantastic Star Wars -esque effects with spaceships docking during this beginning sequence but it was a pity we didn't see more of the Cybermen. Bit of a wasted opportunity there.

In fact, because there seemed to be so much packed into this episode, there was much that was just glossed over. It was chock full of genius ideas but some characters were introduced and then far too quickly killed off. For most, it didn't really matter but it's a pity we won't see any more of Sontaran nurse Commander Strax. Newcomer Madame Vastra and sidekick Jenny seem to have gone down well with the fans though (and quite right too). Loved the little nod to Thunderbirds with her coachman Parker - "Yes, m'lady".

The revelation Of River Song's identity wasn't too surprising once we'd learnt the name of Amy's baby although for a moment I was flummoxed when River supposedly revealed all to the Doctor and yet it didn't seem clear to the viewer. I wondered whether I had missed something - I just had to be a little patient.

I thought Moffat wanted a break in the series to give us a wonderful cliffhanger to fret over but, I have to say, this wasn't much of a cliffhanger. The one at the end of the last episode was better.

Also I wonder how the eye-patch woman knew Amy was pregnant before she kidnapped her at a point before the beginning of this series? No-one else knew at that point. And why were the Clerics the bad guys here but the good guys in the Time of the Angels?

So, little Melody was taken to Earth where she was brought up in a spacesuit by the Silence until she escaped and may (or may not) have killed an older Doctor and then went on to regenerate. How do the Silence fit in with eye-patch woman? How is Melody/River supposed to help fight against the Doctor (I suppose if she was the one in the spacesuit that killed the Doctor then I guess she did the job)? How does this all fit in with the TARDIS exploding?

So, great episode but still lots of questions. And complex but in a good way (although both my wife and 9year old daughter were confused by what was happening during this episode). The next episode after the break sounds pretty awesome though - "Lets Kill Hitler".

Doctor Who: The Almost People

Spoilers ahoy!!!



So, did the Doctor's shoes dissolve when he sonicked fake Amy? Because he'd swapped them with the fake Doctor's earlier and as far as I could see he didn't swap back.

More importantly why did he sonic fake Amy? After an episode which tried to show that flesh versions of people were really no different to the regular people - so much so that a couple of flesh versions took over the lives of the regular humans at the end - the Doctor's melting of fake Amy seemed a little... harsh.

Anyway, I guess this episode of Doctor Who - the second part of the Rebel Flesh - will mostly be remembered for the last five minutes or so which was something of a game changer for this season (and which I've already spoiled above). Yet the rest of the episode was pretty decent too. Nothing wonderful, and it felt a little padded out, but reasonably thrilling, scary with a intriguing delve into what makes a human. The physical effects were pretty good although some of the CGI, such as when fake Jennifer turned into her monstrous form, were a little iffy. Some great characters and acting too - I especially like Cleaves, the leader of the group.

Still, it's that last little revelation concerning Amy that really ramped this up from an above average episode to an excellent one. It also means this "filler" episode was actually strongly linked to the series long storyline. So when was real Amy swapped for the ganger? When the Silence captured her? Or prior to that when Amy and Rory were on Earth sans Doctor? And why has the Eye Patch Lady taken Amy and so interested in her baby?

Next week it's the mid season cliffhanger and then a break over the summer. Unfortunately (well, sort of) I'll be on holiday so I won't see it until the week after. Eeek! I may have to steer away from spoilers until then.

Doctor Who: The Rebel Flesh

Part way through this week's episode of Doctor Who I thought we were going to see Rory die. Again. It was when the woman with the electric taser thingy was threatening to zap the Gangers and Rory tackled her to the ground. I thought he'd get zapped, die, but then we'd discover he was actually a Ganger all along.

But no, amazingly Rory remained unharmed this week. Although he has gone wandering off to save Jennifer (leaving his wife to the other Gangers) so who knows how he'll fare.

This weeks episode was good but not wonderful or exciting like last weeks or the first two weeks. Though it was better than the pirate episode. The pace seemed somewhat slower than previously and the story was given room to breathe. That also meant that occasionally things moved a little too slowly for me. Still it was enjoyable and suitably scary - it was the first episode my daughter had watched since the Christmas episode and it'll probably be the last for a while. She found it a bit too "freaky" (as she called it).

Quite a bit was made of the fact that the Doctor and the rest were unconscious for an hour or more but we haven't really seen the effect of that. Are Amy and Rory gangers? Perhaps even the 'original' people are actually gangers and the originals are elsewhere?

We'll just have to wait until next week for the second part. And then the week after it's the midseason cliffhanger. Already!

Q&A with Neil Gaiman

Over on The Guardian website, Neil Gaiman has answered a number of questions about his Doctor Who episode The Doctor's Wife.

It explains a number of those niggling questions about that episode, such as why we didn't see more rooms inside the TARDIS or learn more about Idris (a lot of it boils down to limited running time and money).

Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife

So that's where the Tenth's control room appears. We'd seen pictures of Amy and Rory in the old control room and here it appears as an archived room in the TARDIS. A back-up, as it were.

This week's episode was all about the Doctor's relationship with the TARDIS as 'she' finally found her voice. And what a fantastic episode it was. Just brilliant.

When the only complaint I can make was that the only bit of the TARDIS we saw (other than that old control room) was lots of the same corridor then it can't be bad. Well, sometimes it went a bit too fast to keep up as well I suppose...

Still all I can say is marvellous!

Then there was that little prediction at the end: "the only water in the forest is the river". What with a river, a forest and the silence this all sort of points towards the Silence In The Library/Forest Of the Dead episodes from a couple of series ago. Are they still in the library then? Perhaps saved in the computer like River?

And, of course, a pond is made of water. So does this mean River is Amy Pond? Or that Amy doesn't really exist, only River?

Yet another mystery to add to the rather large list.

Next week there's another two parter and it looks pretty spooky!

Doctor Who: The Curse of the Black Spot

I thought the sonic screwdriver didn't work against bolts? Hmmm....

So, the first of the "filler" episodes in the sixth series of Doctor Who aired yesterday and although it wasn't terrible (I don't think any episode of New Who has been rubbish) it wasn't very good either. It didn't help that - as Heropress pointed out - it was just a rehash of The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances story (though not as good by a long way).

The problem with the Moff's plan to have a fascinating and complicated series long mystery, one that even stretches back to the beginning of Series 5, is that he hasn't written every episode. Some of them will be written by others and, although they may be competent, they feel a little jarring because they don't advance the series plot. Russell T Davies' didn't really do this sort of things - his "Bad Wolf" and Harold Saxon running themes were merely hints pointing towards the final episode(s) - and so different individual stories written by others (though often rewritten by Davies which helped give them some consistency) weren't a problem.

Of course, individual episodes not written by the head writer can sometimes produce some wonderful results. Take Blink for example. But the Curse of the Black spot wasn't one of those.

Whereas last week there seemed to be too much crammed into 45 minutes for my liking, here there seemed to be too little. A Siren who "attacks" a pirate ship and apparently "kills" anyone who has injured themselves turns out to be a holographic doctor from an alien, alternate-dimension spaceship which has somehow 'fused' with the pirate ship. There wasn't enough to fill a whole episode so let's throw in the captain's son and a long drawn-out sequence where one of the companions appears to die, shall we? And, y'know, I thought travelling from one parallel dimension to another wasn't generally possible...?

The idea that the 'siren' appeared from reflections seemed somewhat inconsistant as well. Was it only when a reflection of an injured person occurred that the siren appeared? If so, how did the Doctor and Amy (neither of whom had any injuries at that point) summon the siren to go and save a drowning Rory? It all seemed a bit vague.

Oh and why were all the others strapped onto beds in the 'sickbay' when the siren brought them to the alien ship whereas the Doctor, Amy and the Captain were just left unattended in a corridor somewhere? And why did the Doctor run out of the TARDIS when it started dematerialising? Why not stay in it to see where it went?

I could go on. There were a number of niggling things that didn't really work.

And throwing in a few bits linking to the main mysteries of this series - the Doctor looking at a TARDIS monitor of Amy's quantum pregnancy *again* and the strange woman with an eyepatch at a little window - didn't really raise this above just okay. In fact, all it probably did was remind people how much better the last two episodes were.

Next week though, it's Neil Gaiman's episode which hopefully means we'll get something a little better. The trailer certainly looked interesting!

Doctor Who: Day of the Moon

WTF?

Well, the ending of last Saturday's exciting episode of Doctor Who - Day of the Moon - was a bit of a shock and pretty much added yet another question into the mix. Is the girl a Time Lord? Or, perhaps, she was the one in the spaceman suit who shot the Future Doctor, stole his regeneration energy and is now using it. Maybe...?

Can't say I was keen on the old 3 months later start. It seemed a bit of a cheat after last weeks cliffhanger ending and meant things were a bit messy at the beginning of this episode. Amy shot the girl but it seems they did check on her, or ask her who she was or take her with them. And the Doctor didn't investigate the tunnels or the Silence. Instead they just seemed to run. But surely as soon as they looked away from the Silence they would have forgot about them?

And why was Canton pretending to hunt down the Doctor and his companions? It wasn't because the Silence made him do it. Nor was it because they were interested in the Doctor - he's been on Earth a lot of times before and they've not bothered. It just seemed to be because the whole subterfuge thing would be cool.

The forgetting the Silence thing came and went as well. Sometimes as soon as they looked away they'd forget everything whereas later, in the TARDIS, they were talking about them (but this time just couldn't remember what they looked like). A bit inconsistent.

Anyway, after a shaky start, things improved. It was a very action-packed, fascinating episode and the time just flew by. But I felt it tried to pack too much into 45 minutes. This storyline could've been used for a 13 episode series in some shows.

Then there was that wonderful ending (after the Doctor had turned everyone who watches the moon landing into a murderer!) with the girl that came as a bit of a wonderful shock. Slightly ruined by the bit beforehand where the Doctor said that maybe they'd go on a few adventures for a while. Why isn't he investigating Amy's quantum pregnancy? Or the Silence and where they got that makeshift TARDIS? Or find the girl? No, instead let's suspend the series story line for 4 episodes of "filler" - thoroughly entertaining and wonderful episode (no doubt) - but filler nonetheless. Ah well.

So a good episode but not perfect. And there's still lots of questions left to be answered (i hope they'll be answered). Roll on Saturday and y'aaaahhh - pirates!

Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut

I waited months for that?!? Really? All that build up, for what...?!

Nah, I'm just kidding.

The first episode of Series 6 of new Doctor Who was actually quite wonderful (though perhaps not as great as I'd built it up to be in my head beforehand). Some fantastic performances from everyone - and Karen Gillen has improved immensely as Amy Pond - for this funny, scary mystery.

Steven Moffat is a master of the one-liners and amusing little situations and he's also probably the best current Who writer at bringing the scares. His Weeping Angels from Blink and gasmask-wearing little boy from The Empty Child were wonderfully creepy and here he introduces us to the Silence (or are they the Silents?). They're similar, in a way, to the Angels in that you only remember them whilst you're looking at them. It's a fascinating idea and one that leads to the possibility that the Silence have been around for ages - long enough it seems that they've invaded us and burrowed under the Earth - it's just that we don't remember them ever coming here. Funnily though, they're strangely not as silent as they're name suggests, as one stretched its mouth (looking a bit like Edvard Munch's 'The Scream') to talk to Amy.

Loved that scene with Amy and the Silent as the alien blasted Joy in slow motion, btw.

Mystery-wise, we're left with loads of questions. Who was the spaceman who killed the future Doctor? Why did he kill him? Why did the Doctor go calmly to his end? Who/what are the Silence and what do they want? Why have they got a makeshift Tardis like the one seen in The Lodger underground? Who's the little girl calling the President? Who is River Song and which 'good man' did she kill? What bearing will Amy's pregancy have on things? And how will Amy, Rory and River stop the Doctor from being killed?

Regarding the future Doctor, it's surprising that he's still the Matt Smith version in 200 years (what years are these? Earth years? Gallifreyan years? It must be tricky to measure these things as a time traveller!). And, are we to assume in all that time, the only people he's met and trusts are Amy, Rory, River and an older Canton Everett Delaware? Surely he'll have met other companions in that time?

At first sight it also screws up the TV programme in that now the Doctor can't regenerate. So that means Matt has to stay on for the rest of the lifetime of the show. Of course, I suspect the Moff will come up with some clever cheat around this. Or have the Doctor regenerate numerous times but then, in just under 200 years time, decide to regenerate back into the shape of Matt Smith. We know Time Lords can choose what they look like when they regenerate - Romana did it - it's just that the Doctor has (up until now) preferred a more random approach.

So who shot the Doctor? A part of me was reminded of the recent death of Captain America when we saw the Doctor getting shot by the spaceman. The gun was some sort of hi-tech affair which made me wonder whether it was storing the Doctor's soul - or regeneration energy - to be used on another body. Perhaps then it was the Doctor inside the spacesuit? Or, considering that River has killed someone in her past (our future), perhaps it's her?

Talking of River, she seemed to act rather strangely after climbing down the manhole into the Silence's tunnels. After coming back up and saying everything was clear (because she had forgotten seeing the aliens, I guess), she decided she needed to check again with Rory. Not sure why. But then, when we see Rory coming down the ladder River is feeling a little unwell in the tunnel. Why was this? Was it merely a diversion from Amy's morning sickness or was there something else going on here?

And how does River travel around in time and space so much? Does she have her own Tardis?

Anyway, the fact that I'm analysing this, considering ideas and postulating theories, is very encouraging. It means it was an extremely intriguing episode, and hopefully one that everyone else found interesting and not confusing (I do wonder if younger kids were left baffled by it all). Together with sensationalist hyperbole to grab headlines and attentions, it'll hopefully continue to secure Doctor Who's place at the top of Auntie Beeb's output.

Only four days left to go until the second part...

Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming

Via the magic of YouTube, I've now seen (most of) the first episode of Games of Thrones, HBO's new fantasy drama based on the Song of Fire and Ice books by George R. R. Martin. And yeah, it was very good.

Though I don't think I did myself any favours watching it on a small iPod Touch screen in 12 minute chunks. I'm sure this thing would've looked pretty spectacular in hi-def on a big screen.

Also, having seen a lot of preview clips - including all of the first 10 minutes or so - and "making of" documentaries, I felt somewhat spoiled before seeing this show. I already knew that the sets and locations looked pretty amazing and that it was obvious a great deal of money had been spent. I'd seen most of the characters and knew the actors playing them were, for the most part, top notch. Together with the fact that I've read the first three books this show is based on, meant that it all felt very familiar whilst I watching this yesterday - including the "shocking" ending. It was almost as if I'd seen most of it before!

As I've seen someone mention elsewhere, the episode itself seemed somewhat bleak. Probably because a lot of it was set in and around the brilliantly-realised Winterfell, which is supposed to be bleak. The mysterious and gruesome pre-credits opener beyond the frosty Wall also added to the cold and depressing nature. Still, you could see it was meant to be this way and accurately reflects the books.

I found the periods of quietness, and lack of a rousing (and, some might say, intrusive) score an unusual choice. Other than for those chilling scenes beyond the Wall, I'm not sure it entirely worked. I think I wanted a little more noise. Perhaps I've watched too much Doctor Who?

There were some slightly dodgy effects with Brandon climbing across the tops of Winterfell - and also the scenes of him clambering up walls seemed to go on a little too long. But otherwise, it looked pretty impressive. And the time watching it went quite quickly I felt.

So, overall, it was a solid start and great to hear that HBO have already renewed it for a second series after these first 10 episodes. Though whether I'll get to watch the next episode next week will be up to Youtube!

Building the Tardis

Ooooh... Building a MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) console inside a TARDIS. Wow. I want one.

And there are also some new Doctor Who images released.

Considering we see the Doctor, Rory and Amy in the pirate-y third episode of Series 6 and River is supposed to return in the cliffhanging seventh episode, I wonder who the heck dies in the series opener as teased by Steven Moffat!?!

Death and the Silence in Doctor Who

Bleeding Cool have posted the covers of the latest Doctor Who Magazine which lets slip a little twist. Namely, one of the characters - either the Doctor, Amy, Rory or River - is going to die.

Head writer Steven Moffat has said that it isn't a trick and whoever it is is definitely going to die. Now, if that was really true it would pretty much mean that the Doctor himself was out of the running. I mean, you can't have Doctor Who without the Doctor (well, maybe for an episode or two but no more). I'd also say that Amy was out of the running as well. She's still the Doctor's assistant/companion and I don't think they'd just replace her at the beginning of a new series.

So that leaves Rory and River, both of whom have died before. Of course, if River died then it would sort of ruin her ending in the Silence in the Library. Which, finally, leaves Rory...

Now, this all assumes the death will not be, in some clever way, undone. As with other previous deaths, I suspect that won't be the case. Generally speculation, based in part on the Doctor's words in the trailer ("Amy Pond. My life is in your hands" or something similar), is that it is the Doctor who dies (killed by River, perhaps, to fulfill her destiny in ending the life of a good man, as mentioned in the last series?) and Amy and Rory have to go back and change time to stop it from happening. Which, if true, means the death is a bit of a cheat, after all. I guess we'll find out when the new series starts on April 23rd.

Whilst I'm here, another thing to note is that people have been wondering what "The Silence" is that will apparently 'fall' in this series (and predicted to fall way back at the beginning of the last series). The BBC's recently released press pack contains a sort of Q&A section with Steven Moffat in which it says:

"Will there be new monsters? They're ... scary. Very scary. And, ohh, I don't want to say more – there's the Silence in episodes one and two, the Siren, in episode three, the Gangers in five and six, all these are more than just freaky costumes and masks; there are SCARY ideas here".

And later, Matt Smith says,

"I think The Silence are one of the greatest monsters of recent years and certainly one of the scariest. They're also very clever and I love the fact they've been silently working since the dawn of time to make The Doctor come unstuck."

Which all seems to indicate that, yes, the Silence are the Grey-like race of 'monsters' or aliens we've seen hiding in the background in the trailers. So, I wonder what's so bad about them 'falling'?

And then there's the cliffhanger that'll come at the end of episode 7 (before the series takes a break and comes back in autumn):

"Normally our cliff-hangers are lives being threatened; with this one, three live are changed FOREVER".

I wonder which three lives these will be? Probably those of the Doctor, Rory and Amy when they finally discover who River Song actually is, I guess!

Finally, here's the synopsis to the first episode - The Impossible Astronaut:
"Four envelopes, numbered 2, 3 and 4, each containing a date, time and map reference, unsigned, but TARDIS blue. Who sent them? And who received the missing number one? This strange summons reunites the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song in the middle of the Utah desert and unveils a terrible secret the Doctor's friends must never reveal to him.

Placing his life entirely in their hands, the Doctor agrees to search for the recipient of the fourth envelope - just who is Canton Everett Delaware the Third? And what is the relevance of their only other clue: 'Space 1969'? Their quest lands them - quite literally - in the Oval Office, where they are enlisted by President Nixon himself to assist enigmatic former-FBI agent Canton, in saving a terrified little girl from a mysterious spaceman".

Being Human: The Wolf-Shaped Bullet

Somehow I felt that the rug was pulled from under my feet during this finale.

Last week's set-up of the potential outing of vampires was quickly defused by Herrick's "rescue" of Mitchell from the police cell. I suppose all the dead bodies with double puncture wounds to the neck wouldn't be a clue? And Nina's near death was conveniently and abruptly reversed by a returning Annie later in the epsiode. Two of the bigger cliffhangers from last week wrapped up a little too quickly.

Whilst Herrick took Mitchell from the police station to the cage-fighting set (they got their money's worth out of that, eh?) for a heart-to-heart, Annie heard about Nina's hospitalisation and rushed to the emergency room. The best bit of the episode came as Lia contacted Annie using a dead police officer's bloody body and then Annie had to step through someone elses door to Purgatory once again.

There it soon became clear that, indeed, Lia was a liar (as predicted back in episode 1) and she'd just made up the wolf-shaped bullet prophecy to make Mitchell twitchy around George and Nina. However, Annie convinced her that her vengeance wouldn't solve anything but would instead mean that Mitchell would continue to claim other victims - including George, Nina and their unborn baby. Quite how Lia was able to roam around Purgatory and exact her revenge when none of Mitchell's other victims have done so wasn't made clear. Also, I thought in previous series that the afterlife was desperate to get Annie and yet here it is, happy for her to return to the world of the living - just in time to save Nina and baby.

Back in the cage, it appears George had already guessed that Mitchell was the Box Tunnel murderer and so this little news doesn't faze him. But knowing that Herrick might have killed Nina does throw him over the edge. Hmm, but wasn't Mitchell originally all for killing Herrick and it was Nina who decided to keep the vampire time-bomb in the attic? Anyway, love and grief are never rational, so we got a wonderfully tense scene which culminates in Tom, McNair's son, rushing in dusting a vamp bodyguard on the way (what happened to Tom after this though?).

I felt that the forward shift in time about two-thirds through this episode was somewhat sudden. George, Annie and a fully healed Nina (and bump) were back at Honolulu Heights - wasn't that cordoned off by the police? Weren't they still sweeping the place for evidence? Has someone cleaned up all the blood? Meanwhile, Mitchell was in a car watching the sunrise with Herrick. After discovering that a vamp cannot be resurrected from a stake to the heart (but not exactly learning how Herrick managed his comeback), Mitchell deals with his old mentor.

The final 20 minutes or so, when a deeply troubled Mitchell came back and wanted George to kill him, was dragged out a little too much for my liking. All the tears and hand-wringing felt a bit forced to me. Was the point that Mitchell could never be redeemed, that he would always feel the hunger and go on to kill again? Yes, George and Annie loved him - and he loved them back - but it seemed a bit of a shitty ending for him (if we're to assume vamps = drug addicts then the only resolution is for them is to die?!?).

Then there was the introduction of the Old Ones. Brilliantly played, but kinda out of nowhere really. They seemed to wrap things up too easily whilst introducing the threat for season 4, if they decide to make another series. But without Mitchell, would another series really work? I'm not sure it would, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

So, an entertaining final episode which I enjoyed immensely but which, strangely, also disappointed me. I felt last week's episode was stronger and more thrilling; this seemed to drag things through the ringer for far too long. Still, a decent end to the series I guess and, perhaps, to the show as a whole.

Next week - it looks like the Becoming Human mini webisodes are being collected together and shown on BBC3. Good call. Plus, we'll finally discover who the heck killed Matt.

Outcasts (Episode 7)

Let's compare the penultimate episodes of Outcasts with Being Human, shall we?

Whereas Being Human was full of intriguing and shocking twists that built up to a huge cliffhanger, Outcasts sort of just plodded along with an average episode. It was the sort of thing you might get during the middle of the series, a potential character piece that keeps the big series-wide storyline in the background whilst concentrating on one or two central characters. Other than Berger's TV spot at the end, calling for the residents of Forthaven to rebel against Tate, there was no build up, no tension, and no cliffhanger to whet our appetite for the big finale.

I also have to say that Outcasts' next episode previews are a bit naff as well. A dozen quick images accompanied by what sounds like the Eastenders drumbeat doesn't really excite me and make me desperate to watch next week. If anything, the final episode just looks like more of the same!

The beginning of this episode started well. We had Rudi, leader of the ACs, appearing to chat to the invisible "aliens" (are they a disembodied intelligence or, as Tate and Stella kept calling them, host entities?). Then Tate came face-to-face with one that looked just like him (or is Tate just imagining it all?). I did note that the "alien" didn't actually answer Tate's question about whether it would kill the humans; it just said that the same fact would befall them as happened to the fossilised hominids.

That was mostly it for the interesting stuff.

Instead, the show switched to Cass receiving an anonymous note indicating that someone knew his secret identity. Of course, in response he decided to get blind drunk and sleep with a strange woman. As you do. After he catches Faith (who is actually called Carla) rifling through his things, he assumes she's the one who sent the note and attacks her. She runs off and much of the rest of the show turns into a hunt for the woman whilst Cass tries to cover up his involvement.

Meanwhile, Tate decides it would be a good idea if he sneaks out of Forthaven to go and speak with Rudi, the guy who swore he'd kill him. Turns out that the "aliens" only have it in for the 70 inhabitants (sorry, 70,000 inhabitants) of the city and not the ACs. So Tate returns to his dimly lit office empty-handed and with a potential riot on the cards.

In the end, it turns out the woman was being abused by her husband and, eventually, Cass is cleared. But not before his relationship with the gorgeous Fleur has seriously soured. She finds some meaningless solace in the arms of wily Jack who, after some egging on by Berger, had earlier hanged their AC prisoner.

Oh and there was some dreadful stuff with Lily stealing money from the bar in order to get Stella to notice her. Or something. I thought the two had reconciled? All this seemed to serve was to allow Berger to 'comfort' Stella and thus show us how he's trying to bring people onto his side. And that was just a prelude to inciting the populace against the returning Tate.

After small improvements week after week, it looks like Outcasts had already reached it's peak last week. Instead of giving us a thrilling lead up to the final episode, we got something decidedly average - helped only by the wonderful Daniel Mays as Cass. Heck, we didn't even get to find out what it was Cass - a.k.a. Tom Starling - did in the past that was so awful! And with so many questions and plot threads still to be answered, it looks like the final episode this weekend might be a bit of a disappointment.

When Who?

Bleeding Cool has posted a banner image indicating that BBC America will start showing the new series of Doctor Who on the 23rd April (Easter Saturday). Which is probably a good guess for when it will start in the UK.

Woohoo!