Live Review: S8.E4 - Listen

The main teaser for series eight consisted of a shot of the TARDIS floating/suspended above the Earth with its doors open. The camera then moves up to show the Doctor sat cross legged on the roof, he looks straight down the lens and says "Listen!"... It appears that this, the episode with that title, opens with this sequence then cuts to the console room as the Doctor paces around talking to himself (or it may be that the BBC chose to put the two together). He is talking as if giving a lecture, projecting with authority but pondering on the subject of why we talk aloud when they know we are alone. He suggests that it is because we know that we're not alone! There is a sequence to demonstrate his study of how different animals have evolved to best survive their respective habitat as a hunter or a defender - this includes a lovely shot of the TARDIS underwater as the Doctor stands in the open doorway observing a blowfish. We see him writing on his blackboard again, like a teacher, but he puts his chalk down to ask a question... If a creature evolved to stay perfectly hidden and undetected, what would it do when we start talking aloud for no reason... when he returns, the chalk has moved (it rolls on the floor) and the answer has appeared on the blackboard... Listen!

Interesting, clever and a little creepy... the pre-title sequence is a good indicator of what is to come, but there's plenty of suspense and surprise waiting to be uncovered...

Live Review: S8.E3 - Robot Of Sherwood

When I first heard of this episode before the series began, there were two alarm bells that rang. First of all, the title sends a quick shiver down the spine with cheese and predictability, no prizes for guessing what it would be about. Secondly, it was written by Mark Gatiss which experience told me it could be either a good thing or a not so goo thing. I wouldn't say he has written any bad episodes, but they do have a tendency towards going too far and being a bit silly at times. When the episode came to be broadcast, I had forgotten it was a Gatiss episode so I watched with little preconception. Tit title, however, was unavoidable...

The episode opens with something which I forgot to mention in my last two reviews: The Doctor writing and working things out with a piece of chalk. In Deep Breath he found a piece of chalk (by smell, no less) and proceeded to scrawl all over the floor and walls of his bedroom. Into The Dalek featured a shot or two of a blackboard in the TARDIS covered in Gallifreyan calculations, and Robot Of Sherwood opened with a shot of the Doctor writing on it... suggesting that Into The Dalek was originally intended to come after Robot Of Sherwood, but that needn't be the case. He turns to Clara and tells her it is her choice where they go this time. She almost reluctantly suggests a meeting with her hero, Robin Hood... As he sets the TARDIS towards Sherwood Forest 1190AD-ish, the Doctor points out that heroes like that are never real, saying "You'll only be disappointed"...

Live Review: S8.E2 - Into The Dalek

As the title suggests, this epiode sees the return of an old enemy. The oldest, in fact. As stated in the accompanying episode of "Doctor Who Extra", it's hard to come up with new Dalek episodes after fifty years, but what we have here really is something new. Echoes from the past may be present, but like Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS last year, Into The Dalek gives us plenty of new mysteries and does something that only dreams could conjure up before now. Like in Christopher Ecclestone's Dalek, the Doctor is presented with a captured and damaged Dalek and asked to fix it, only this time it seems to be a good Dalek. Captivated by this paradox, the Doctor wants to get inside its head to understand what has happened... and he explains to Clara that he's not talking metaphorically...