Live Review: S11.E5 - The Tsuranga Conundrum

It all started out as a mild curiosity in the junk yard, and now it's turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure, don't you think? So said the First Doctor in the opening episode of The Sensorites in 1964 reflecting back on the past 6 months since the show began. Here were are again in a junk yard, or rather a junk galaxy where the Doctor is sure she saw what she needs on a previous visit. Before long, however she accidentally triggers a sonic-mine and whoomp! They're out cold coming round in a hospital surrounded by bright whites in stark contrast to the darkness they were just in. The Doctor seems to be taking longer to recover than her friends, but as they stumble through the wards looking for the exit they come across a famous General with adrenaline issues and a pregnant man who is a day over due...

Live Review: S11.E4 - Arachnids In The UK

This episode marks one of those occasions when the title tells you everything you need to know about what's coming up! Anyone with a fear of spiders may want to hide behind the sofa now... although if you are a spider then you may already be there... The title's play on the Sex Pistols song "Anarchy In The UK" will likely be lost on the show's target audience and any memories of the film Arachnophobia will be strictly in the maturer viewers and the least said about Planet Of The Spiders (But I'll explain that later)

Live Review: S11.E3 - Rosa

A title reminiscent of Christopher Ecclestone's début Rose but that's pretty much where the similarities end. Once again we go straight to the title, The pre-title sequence is a thing of the past. As much as it can set the scene and whet your appetite, it also means you have to be sat ready to watch straight away. Now this shouldn't be a problem but there are always those times when someone else is running behind and the last thing you want to have to do is explain what they've missed (even if you do have the length of the actual titles to do it). Going straight to the titles acts as a call to arms, a chance for the dog to howl to gather the pack and a signal to anyone who's not quite ready that they need to get their skates on! This time around, those skates would get you in to Montgomery, Alabama in 1943 where a loan woman boarding a bus questions the need to board the bus via the rear door when she's already boarded at the front to pay and there are already people standing in the door well... but she's "coloured" which should be reason enough (at least that was the opinion of many at the time)...

Live Review: S11.E2 - The Ghost Monument

Last week's episode ended on a cliffhanger... The Doctor had rigged up a contraption to transport herself to her TARDIS and with her new friends around her she tried not to say goodbye or feel sentimental, then with a flash and a crackle she vanished, only her new friends somehow got caught up in it and vanished with her! The final shot of the episode saw them all floating in space, which couldn't be good!

So how would this second episode begin? Steven Moffat stated that he hated cliffhangers being resolved by the next episode picking up exactly where the last left off because he felt it wrong to suggest that the Doctor had remained in the same position all week, but Chris Chibnall is in charge now, how will he handle it? In the classic series we would get a reprise of the last few moments (like I gave above) in the revived series it wouldn't be unusual to get a "Previously..." montage followed by either a slight resolve and twist before the titles or titles straight after the montage. I sat down with my dinner eager to find out what Chibbers had lined up...

Live Review: S11.E1 - The Woman Who Fell To Earth

As I write this, my reviews have fallen behind. I got stuck on Extremis half way through the last series as the so-called Monk Trilogy left me feeling down and lacking enthusiasm. I'll cover that when I eventually go back and revisit them but for now, it's time to welcome a new Doctor and her new friends... Series 11 sees what is possibly the biggest shake-up since the show returned: New show runner and executive producers bringing in their new Doctor and companions or course, but also new writers, directors, designers, a new composer, new effects company and even new classy cameras to give the show a 2:1 ratio and a more ultra-modern filmic look. On top of that it has moved to Sunday nights. Oh and did I mention that the Doctor is now a woman? I haven't been this excited and nervous about Doctor Who since its return in 2005. I settled down in front of the TV on Sunday 7^th October 2018 with lasagne and a cold cider hoping, preying it would be good...

Live Review: S10.E6 - Extremis

Never one to shy away from time bending and mind bending stories, Steven Moffat delivers just that in his second episode for the series. It opens with a voice over about a planet of executioners happy to carry out such sentences for others. A caption tells us this is a long time ago and we see that the Doctor is on the receiving end of the exposition and is told it will be an honour to kill a Time Lord, or at least be host to it as the actual sentence must be carried out by one of the convicted's own people. A door opens and out steps Missy... We cut away from this to see the present day Doctor sat outside the vault talking to Missy within, then back to the execution as she calmly pleads with him to let her live. Back to the present and the Doctor receives an e-mail on his sonic sunglasses with the title of the episode as its subject "Extremis". The titles roll with no real clue as to what on Earth is going on!

Live Review: S10.E5 - Oxygen

"Space,the final frontier" the Doctor says in a cheeky opening voice-over. He goes on to explain that it is final because it wants to kill us. This will be Bill's first space adventure in a classic 'isolated base under siege' scenario. Where immediately introduced to the setting as two bodies tumble through the blackness of space in spacesuits but not helmets. We see a space station where two figures are working outside, the female is telling the male ahead of her that she wants them to have a baby but her communication system is faulty and she realises she'll have to tell him later but they are both low on oxygen and it becomes clear that tey are desperately trying to get back inside calmly when the two tumbling bodies land behind them and attack like zombies. The woman is killed and joins them in their relentless trudge towards her partner... This is going to be a dark episode, let the titles roll.