Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 3 - The Unquiet Dead

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 3 - The Unquiet Dead

In 1860 Naples, a man looks on as his Grandmother lies in her coffin. She'd dead to start with, but when a strange blue/grey smoke flies into her, she becomes a little bit less dead, killing her Grandson and knocking out the undertaker, and then she heads off into the night moaning.

Meanwhile, The Doctor suggests that, as she's seen the future, Rose might like to see the past - 1860 to be precise. I can see trouble ahead...

The undertaker talks to Gwen from Torchwood - sorry, her long lost relation (what's a Welsh girl doing in 1860 Naples?) - and tells her they are heading out to find the dead lady.

Rose and The Doctor climb off the floor, having fallen in a bumpy landing, and prepare to head out into Naples. Rose gets misty-eyed looking at The Doctor as she realises he gets to live every day over and over again if he wants to, but he misses the moment and asks her to get changed instead.

We learn that Gwen - Gwyneth, sorry - has the power of 'sight'. It's hinted that this is different to regular sight however, as she seems to know what the old lady is up to from a distance. She's very excited apparently, and was going to see a great man that evening before death interfered.

It appears that the great man is Charles Dickens, who is brooding alone before a performance on stage. He gets a pep talk from a stage hand, which at least succeeds in getting him out of his chair, even if it doesn't make him any less grumpy.

Back in the Tardis, Rose has changed, looking lovely and Victorian, and they head on out into the snow. Gwen - GWYNETH, dammit! - are close behind, and Gwen's sight allows her to detect that the old lady is watching Charles Dicken's performance in the building that Rose and The Doctor have walked near, although we know this already because we've seen her drooling over him from the audience a few seconds earlier.

The Doctor realises that it's actually 1869, not 1860, but Rose tells him not to be so OCD about it, until he tells her it's Cardiff and not Naples, and then she looks a bit more fed up. That explains why there's a Welsh girl in Naples then.

Back to Mr Dickens, who is reciting A Christmas Carol, when he notices the old lady giving off the blue/grey smoke. She moans a bit again, perhaps annoyed that he stopped the performance when she was enjoying it so, which attracts the attention of Gwyneth, the undertaker, The Doctor and Rose, who come in to see the smoke flying around looking evil, which The Doctor finds fantastic, but freaks everyone else out. Gwyneth tries to spirit the old lady's now cold body away, but when Rose tries to stop them, the undertaker chloroforms her, as you do. The Doctor and Charles Dickens leave the theatre, having discovered the smoke is actually gas, to see Rose being kidnapped. They persue, The Doctor getting very excited and Northern when he realises who he is sharing a cab with, although don't call him Charlie.

At the undertaker's house, Rose is placed on a table, but when he and Gwyneth leave, the lights start flickering ominously. Rose wakes up just as the gas inhabits the old lady's grandson. The Doctor and Dickens arrive at this point, as Rose nearly falls victim to the grandson, and then the old lady as she decides to join the fun again, and are just in time to help her out of the locked room. The Doctor questions the gas, which reveals that they are dying as some sort of rift can't be sustained.

Rose tears a strip off the undertaker whilst the others take tea, and the undertaker reveals that they house is haunted which led to the dead walking a few months ago. Charles Dickens refuses to believe it, but The Doctor tells him to stop being a silly bugger, and that the rift is obviously widening for the problems to be getting worse.

Dickens goes to look at the bodies and see if he can work out how the trick has been done, but The Doctor tries to convince him that just because he hasn't ever seen aliens and gas together, doesn't mean they can't mix to produce something weird, and to stop being a sissy.

Rose and Gwyneth bond over being women, and Rose is appalled to learn that women weren't treated well back then, which is somehow a surprise. And the japes they both got up to! Oh man, they used to skip school, crush on boys, do sums...Anyway, Gwyneth accidentally reveals her sight when she says she knows about Rose's father dying, and them having come a long way from London, which is a much different version than Gwyneth has seen in drawings. The Doctor decides that, if Gwyneth has the sight,they may as well try a seance.

As Gwyneth does her best Most Haunted impression, the gas begins to descend, leaving Dickens looking rather sheepish. Gwyneth establishes a link with the gas, who beg for help, and want her taking to the rift itself. Apparently, the gas have no home, as it fell victim to the Time War, and have no physical bodies any longer. They want to use the dead. Rose protests, but The Doctor plays Devil's Advocate and asks why not if it could save a species? Bit of a guilt trip going on there at is was all his fault...

The undertaker believes the aliens are from Scotland, but everyone else understands what's happening, and then they have a discussion about the ethics of using a dead body to host another species - The Doctor makes an excellent point about it being the same as a donor card, but Rose remains unconvinced, so he tells her to bugger off home if it's a problem. Gwyneth wants to have her say, and thinks of them as angels, having sang to her all her life, and wants to save them.

When they reach their destination, Rose tells The Doctor that she knows the gas aliens (OK, they're called the Gelf, but I can't think of anything but Red Dwarf and GELFS, so for the sake of this article, they're just gas aliens) don't succeed because they haven't in her own time, but The Doctor tells her that time is in flux and can be re-written at any time (he hasn't coined 'Timey-Wimey' yet). The room becomes colder as the gas aliens arrive. The Doctor tells them it isn't permanent solution, and that he will take them elsewhere to a new world later. Gwyneth establishes contact again, becoming 'the Bridge', but then they go all psycho nasty and turn into what appear to be baby-Balrogs, killing the undertaker. There are a few more of the gas aliens than they originally let on, and they look set to claim humanity. Dickens runs away, as The Doctor traps himself and Rose behind a gate, and talks smack to them. However, as Dickens leaves the house, the aliens that follow him realise the atmosphere is hostile outside, and he realises that he can save the day by turning off the flame for the gas lamp and ramping the gas itself up (I wish he wrote stories like this, they'd have been so much better), sucking them out of their hosts and into the air. Well, The Doctor did give them a chance. He tells Gwyneth that they aren't angels, and to send them back - she says that she can't, but she can hold them in place while she lights a match and blows them away, which will mean sacrificing herself. Though The Doctor promises Rose he won't leave her, he realises that it's the only way, and runs before the explosion occurs. Though Rose is hurt that he couldn't do more, The Doctor explains that he thinks she was dead from the minute she opened the bridge. They reflect on her sacrifice to some stirring and emotional music whilst gazing into the air, in one quite bizarre uniform turn of their heads upwards.

They bid Dickens goodbye, who has been inspired to write about his adventures, which again sound far more exciting than any Dickens I've ever actually read. The ending extends longer than the end of The Return of The King, but eventually they depart, assuring him that his books will live forever. Although he'll die in a few weeks time, so swings and roundabouts.

He also leaves laughing manically and shouting to himself, so I think he might be drunk.

So, from the future last time into the past this time. And, although I can't remember anything from this episode the first time round, for me it's a definite improvement on Episode 2. The mystery behind it is stronger, and the moral conundrum at the heart of it (until the reveal of the gas aliens' true evil nature towards the end) make it far more interesting.

There are a few genuine scares as well - there's something about old ladies with creepy eyes walking towards a camera that puts the willies up me, and the opening scene was no exception. Not on a Weeping Angels level, certainly, but it creeped me out a bit.

Key to The Doctor's character here as well is having him meet aliens affrected by the fallout from the Time War. His actions have led them to lose their world, and it's clear that he feels extra responsibility to try and help them. Are they evil in the end because of what happened in the Time War, or would they have been even before their world was destroyed? It all adds up to how I see Eccleston's Doctor as being a much grumpier character.

Knowing now that she'll play Gwen in Torchwood, it's strange seeing Eve Myles play a much more laid back character - there's no way Gwen would take any of this so mildly! 

Rose and Gwyneth talking together is very enjoyable as a character building moment, showing Rose's good nature and wild side together. I might have joked about it in the actual review, but it's these little character moments that make Doctor Who such a good show.

The Doctor really does love strange things - he has a massive grin as the undertaker reveals all this zombie-lark has been great for business, which is hilarious. That huge grin is one of my main memories of the Ninth Doctor, and I can't help but grin along whenever it appears. It contrasts so much with his stern stare that he reserves for those he is trying to stop from doing evil, much more than occurs with David Tennant or Matt Smith. For me, you can lump Tennant and Smith together into two Doctor's that have a lot of similarities, whereas Eccleston is much further removed. And not just because he's Northern.

How It Fits Into The Series As A Whole
The rift is of course the rift in Cardiff that is mentioned throughout the series.

Bad Wolf
Gwyneth mentions that she sees the Big Bad Wolf when she uses the 'sight' on Rose.

Overall
A much stronger episode than previously, with a couple of genuine scares, and a great moral conundrum and myster at the heart.

8/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 2 - The End of the World

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 2 - The End of the World

As The Doctor and Rose begin their travels together, The Doctor asks her where she wants to go. After deciding to see the future and then not going far enough to be interesting, they travel 5 billion years into the future to witness the death of our Sun, and by extension, Earth. Following a brilliant nod to The National Trust (thoroughly British, don't you know), a member of the Blue Man Group allows them entry to the main party after The Doctor fools him with his psychic paper. At the party, we meet many guests who are all very alien, such as a flirty tree, another blue thing (the something of something), the Face of Boe, and then the last surviving human, the Lady Cassandra, who's had rather a lot of plastic surgery done. Although she is now paper thin. There are also the 'hooded people with dark, evil voices', or the 'repeated meme', who hand out balls in the name of peace, proclaiming this with their dark, evil voices. And very trustworthy they seem too.

Rose wanders off, a bit freaked out by what the human race has become, and meets the first female member of the Blue Man Group, who speaks to Rose to tell her that Rose has to give her permission in order for her to speak. After Rose admits that maybe running off with a strange alien was a little bit of a rash decision, she leaves to find The Doctor, and the Blue Lady then gets attacked by a bunch of the peace balls which have turned into spiders. Those hooded people with, dark evil voices weren't so peaceful after all.

When she meets up with The Doctor again, Rose continues to freak out, until he walks off in his own moody Northern way. They make up again when he hacks her phone to give her a free calling plan, and she calls her Mum across time and space just to check it works. Soon afterwards, tremors start running through the station, and the Blue Man Group representative gets roasted when one of the spiders deactivates the sun filter.

Flirty Tree offers to help The Doctor find the engine room, whilst Rose decides to mingle. She talks to Cassandra, who declares herself the last 'pure' human, although Rose gives her a 'pff, please' talk when she points out Cassandra's 700+ operations. Meanwhile, Flirty Tree tells The Doctor that she is at the party out of respect for her ancestors who come from Earth. She also reveals that she knows he is a Time Lord and that this is a bit of a shock, which gives us our first clue that he is the last of his species, although it isn't spelt out as such quite yet. The Obviously Evil Hoods kidnap Rose and lock her in a room where the sun filter is being shut off, and The Doctor discovers that the engine room is cooler than it should be, putting it down to the spider hiding in the control box. Back at the party, Cassandra gives a speech about mourning the end of the world, although as this is a world that let's Britney Spears' Toxic become a traditional ballad that has lasted 5 billion years, perhaps the mourning period won't last too long. Rose comes perilously close to becoming a burnt crisp, although she does very well not to be blinded by the rays of sunlight shining directly over her head, less than a foot away. Once he stops the filter from disappearing, The Doctor heads off to the party to solve the mystery of the spiders, leaving Rose to wait it out.

Telling the spiders to go back to their owner, we learn that the Repeating Meme is the perpetrator, although not really, because they're just an idea, even though they're real, but they're robots so they aren't really real, and an arm comes off, and it turns out it's really Cassandra. She threatens The Doctor, but he lays down the ultimate smackdown ('What are you gonna do? Moisturise me?' Ooh, BURN!), and lets her rant about how she's going to make loads of money from it all. Referencing yet another 20th Century song (seriously? Was there no original composing going on after this time?), she tells everyone they're going to burn and then teleports out of the party, as the spaceship starts to declare Earth Death in 2 minutes. Flirty Tree comes to the rescue in the engine room as she buys The Doctor the time he needs to get the shields up by evolving into Fiery Tree, Rose gets attacked by laser bolts from the Sun, and everyone in the party appears to get blinded by the Sun's rays, although they all seem to have the same magical ability of anti-blindness as Rose, because none of them are actually blinded despite directly looking into the Sun.

The Doctor brings Cassandra to justice, by reversing her teleport, and then allowing her to dry out without her moisturisers present. He's definitely still suffering from post-Time War syndrome here, as he declares 'everything has its time, and everything dies', before letting her face explode, literally. Rose then gets sentimental about the fact that we couldn't use the sheer power of the universe itself from stopping the Earth die, even though The National Trust clearly allowed it to carry on for billions of years longer than it should have. There really is no pleasing some people.

However, this clearly touches The Doctor, as he mentions for the first time that Gallifrey burned, and that the Time War happened and the Time Lords lost, leaving him as the last of his race. He offers Rose the chance to go home, but she decides that, as there's 11 episodes to go, she'd better stay with him.

Following on from last weeks very grounded episode, we set straight off into space to witness the death of our Sun, and the Earth with it. Very jolly! While there are some very nice spacey visuals, and it's great seeing what aliens have been created for the show, looking back on it now it's not quite as exciting an episode as I remember. Great seeing Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper settling into their roles, but overall this feels like a slight step down from the first episode.

One of the problems, I think, is that some of the humour is very...I don't know what the term is - 'childish', maybe? I know, I know - Doctor Who is primarily a children's show, but I'd argue (strongly) that it doesn't feel like a children's show to me nowadays, or hasn't really since Series 2. It's the things like having Britney Spear's Toxic as a 'traditional ballad' that make me cringe in a very bad way, almost like the writers are trying too hard to get a laugh. They can do humour fantastically on Doctor Who, but that misses the mark.

The feel of the episode then is still very much of the show in its infancy, but that isn't meant to be a particular criticism (except for the aforementioned dodgy humour...). If anything, it makes me look back on it with a certain nostalgic fondness for how I felt when the show first came out. It's just that, with the benefit of hindsight (which is what this series of reviews is about), it doesn't stand up with the best of what's to come.

Having said all that, the cartoon villain feel of Cassandra, something that we see less nowadays, is splendid fun. I don't think we have bad guys like her anymore, certainly not in the Matt Smith era, or at least not that I can recall at the moment. I can think of a few more in the Eccleston era and I'm looking forward to them very much.

We also get a bit more of a hint as to what The Doctor went through during The Time War - we know now that he is the last of the Time Lords, and Eccleston's face is perfect in showing the angst he is carrying, and goes some way to explaining his rather more grumpy portrayal of The Doctor. One of my favourite parts of Eccleston's portrayal overall is his huge beaming grin, and it's wonderfully done here. Also his general 'Northern' air. Such a strange thing that people pick up on this, but I know exactly what they mean.

If anything, Billie Piper has slotted into her role as Rose better than Eccleston as The Doctor at this point. She has the perfect blend of excitement and trepidation, and her slight air of feistiness begins to shine through here, which would come to be a common trait with all The Doctor's companions to date (except for Wilf, bless him). She's not as larger-than-life or in your face as Donna, Amy or Clara, but there's something about her that keeps her towards the top of my favourite companions.

There's also the start of the running 'we're not a couple' type gags that crop up throughout the earlier series (it'll reach its comedic peak in Series 4) - this time Jabe questions whether Rose is The Doctor's wife, partner, concubine or prostitute. Child-friendly indeed!

How It Fits Into The Series As A Whole
We learn that The Doctor is the last of the Time Lords

The Bad Wolf Sightings
The Moxx of Balhoon tells The Face of Boe that the current situation is 'the classic Bad Wolf scenario', referring to the fact that the balls given by the Repeated Meme are evil in disguise, as the bad wolf was disguised as Red Riding Hood's granny in Red Riding Hood. At least, I presume that's what they mean.

Overall
It's got it's moments, particularly the bits we learn of The Doctor's backstory, but it doesn't as well as some other episodes, and the 'funny' bits about traditional Earth ballads are just embarassing.

4/10

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 1 - Rose

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 1 - Rose

Anticipation is ripe for Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary special on November 23rd of this, the year of our Time Lord, 2013. So, what better time for revisiting the entire back catalogue of the modern Doctor Who? I'm hoping I've timed this well enough to give me enough opportunity to watch all the episodes before November 23rd, considering I have a child who doesn't like to sleep at the moment, but we'll see what we can do!

First up, Rose. Christopher Eccleston's first episode as the Ninth Doctor, and Billie Piper's first appearance as companion Rose.

When plastic mannequins start coming to life in the department store where she works, Rose Tyler is saved by the Ninth Doctor, who blows the building up before bidding her farewell. The next day however, he appears at his flat hunting a plastic arm that she took home with her. When the arm comes back to life and attacks both of them, The Doctor lets Rose know it's the Nesteen Consciousness, an alien threat, and that he's heading off to sort it out, in his funny Northern way.

Intrigued, Rose tries to find out more about The Doctor online, and comes across a website run by a chap called Clive, who has found evidence of this Doctor in several different periods of history, including Dallas at the assasiniation of JFK. Heading over to Clive's house with her boyfriend, Mickey (who does his best to look dangerous in a yellow VW Bug), she sees the evidence, but thinks he's a nutter when he declares The Doctor an alien. Unbeknownst to Rose, Mickey has been attacked by a wheelie bin and changed into a plastic Auton (just like the mannequins), although she fails to notice this as he drives her rather erratically to a local restaurant.

Whilst Rose remains blissfully unaware of Mickey's transformation (she seems to treat him like the inattentive one, but really Rose, come on - he's acting stranger than...sliced bread? I need better metaphors), The Doctor has tracked the Nesteen Consciousness' signal to the restaurant and rescues Rose, introducing her to the TARDIS. Rose's 'meeting the TARDIS for the first time' reaction is to run outside in horror, before running back in, which seems to be a rather common reaction. As The Doctor confesses that yes, he is an alien, they search again for where the Nesteen Consciousness is hiding. Rose completes the first half of her Companion interview by locating where it's transmitting from, below the London Eye, they rush underground to confront it, taking a vial of 'Anti-Plastic' (the worst name for a weapon since...sliced bread? Seriously, this is getting embarassing) as backup. The Doctor tells the Nesteen Consciouness to bugger off and leave Humanity alone, but it refuses, blaming The Doctor as he failed to save its homeworld during the Time War, and keeping him held captive with a couple of Autons, who take the Sliced Bread Anti-Plastic. It's up to Rose to use her school-level gymnastic skills to Tarzan kick the Autons into the Nesteen Consciousness itself, thus destroying all the bad guys and successfully completing the rest of her Companion interview.

Outside, The Doctor tests Rose's loyalty to Mickey by offering her the job of full-time companion. As Rose can't shake Mickey from her leg, she explains that she's rather stuck and needs to take care of him, but thank you. However, The Doctor realises that he left a vital piece of information off the job advert, so he returns and explains that the TARDIS travels in time. Now that she knows this, Rose shakes Mickey off her leg, and joins him, in a rather bizarre slow-mo run. Next stop, 5,000,000 AD!

Series 1 kicks off with an episode thats plot isn't really all that memorable, but that does a great job of introducting us to the characters and rules of the Doctor Who universe (or the Whoniverse, for th 3 Doctor Who fans there who've never heard it shortened thusly). I can remember when I first watched this thinking that plastic mannequins coming to life can't exactly compare with armour plated killing machines, but that the way Rose proves herself to The Doctor during the episode meant it didn't matter. From the very first 'Run!', it's clear that we're being taken on an exciting adventure, where we'll meet danger, but have a lot of fun solving it along the way. The humour that I love about Who is present from the start as well, particularly Rose's line about how lots of people being strange in public has to be students.

First impressions of The Ninth Doctor - There's a harshness about The Doctor at the beginning, when he tells Rose to go home to her beans on toast - if it does turn out that this is a Doctor coming immediately from ending the Time War, he's certainly showing some scars. In many ways, although I know that I'll come to love him, he's not the most instantly lovable character. That's clearly just Eccleston and the BBC trying to find the right tone to play with, which is always the same in a pilot.

Also, there's the line about how he's 'having to blunder about saving the life of every stupid ape on this planet' - that's a far cry from the Doctor we know that loves nothing more than saving humans. I can't think of any occasion when the Tenth or Eleventh Doctors say something along these lines, although maybe they've mellowed and learned to love Humanity again by then.

Having said that, the cheeky grin from the 'Northern' Doctor is here right from the start. No matter the incarnation, there's always delight in danger from The Doctor. When I think back to Eccelstone, I always see that grin as he proclaims 'Fantastic!', so it was a bit of a shock to see him being so grumpy before. I always saw David Tennant taking this part the Ninth Doctor and exaggerating it when he plays the Tenth, and I think it's the bit of the Ninth that works best. Where Matt Smith being suddenly hostile and grumpy works well, I don't think it does for Ecclestone. Serious, yes, but not actively hostile.

The Doctor's willingness to give everything a chance before destroying it is laid down here as well, as he gives the Nesteen Consciousness a chance to right its wrongs, before putting an end to it. It's a key part of his character, and it was important to establish it right at the beginning. If he is coming fresh from the Time War, he's obviously trying to make sure he never does anything like that again without exhausting his options first.

His despair at the Time War rears its head too, as the Nesteen Consciousness accuses him of not doing anything to save its world. He pleads that the couldn't save it, or any other world that was lost, and it's great contrast to the rest of episode where he's been either grumpy or smiling like a crazy person. His general attitude, as discussed above, is definitely that of someone who has recently lost something, or has had a lot of trouble, at least intiitally. Even assuming that he has been to Dallas in 1963 etc., this still tells the tale of a man who has a lot of sorrow in his heart.

Moving on to Billie Piper and Rose, I think she clicks with the role straight away. I find it very difficult to choose my favourite of the modern Who companions, but Rose is a very strong candidate. Piper is perfect at delivering the right level of humour, shock and fear, but most of all it's her interplay with the other characters that works so well. She's our guide to discovering this world, and she's terrific at it. We don't know what to make of The Doctor to begin with, just as she doesn't, but at the end we too know that he's the one we want to be going on an adventure with.

The warmth between Rose and Mickey, and the slightly antagonistic relationship between Rose and her mother, Jackie, are also great to watch here - Rose gently teasing Mickey about whether there's a match on at the pub he's offered to take her for a drink, or Jackie telling Rose to sell her story as she needs a way of making money now, are great nods to where the show will go with these relationships. Jackie's flirting with The Doctor (whatever incarnation) begins here, and had me creased up as she teases him about only being in her dressing gown.

Noel Clark makes me laugh all the way through - I know that he can play a hard man, but watching him play a bit of a wimp pretending to be a hard man is brilliant, particulary when he's sat behind the wheel of a yellow VW Beetle (that most manly of cars) trying to intimidate Clive. It's a scarily manic grin when he gets turned into a plastic Mickey. I'm also fairly certain that whoever was playing him without a head wasn't having to act when they were stumbling blindly into everything during the chase in the restaurant...And hugging Rose at the end like a small child is classic.

There's definitely a different feel to the series now - perhaps that's just the camera quality, or the fact that in the first episode they're wandering round council estates rather than worlds in outer space. Also, it's the pilot episode. It feels less cinematic, which is understandable, and in it's infancy - I love it for this reason though, because as viewers that's exactly where we are at this point in the story.

As you'd expect, from the very beginning the music is stunning. There's hints of the Doomsday theme running through, and it's spine tingling, especially as I know how it's going to come about in the Series 2 finale.

How It Fits Into The Series As A Whole
When they contact Clive, the picture of The Doctor suggests that he must have been around with that face for a while, so what is the discovering himself in the mirror thing about? One note about the picture - they musn't have had much of a budget for the Kennedy photo, as it's awful! He looks so badly photoshopped it's unreal.

The Bad Wolf Sightings
None - but they'll start cropping up in the next episode. Clearly there wasn't any point putting them in the pilot!

Overall
A solid start to the series, which introduces the new characters and themes of the Whoniverse perfectly. It's slightly let down by a forgettable main plot, but then it was surely never meant to be memorable for that reason.

8/10

Doctor Who: Ending Series 7 and Looking Forward to the 50 Anniversary Special *Spoilers* (Of course...)

Doctor Who: Questions and Answers from the end of Series 7 *Spoilers* (Of course...)

After many weeks of build up to the finale of Doctor Who series 7, we finally found ourselves with some answers. We learnt the mystery behind Clara (a perfectly satisfying solution in my mind), and we saw the inevitable dodging of actually learning The Doctor's name - his name was spoken, yes, but not so that we could hear it, and so this secret still remains a secret (which is probably for the best really - no name could ever live to the hype surrounding it, and in the end it was more important that the name was used by someone, rather than what the name actually is itself). 

Neither of these were the biggest talking point of the episode however. Instead, we got a massive hint towards a bigger, darker secret, one that already has message boards and forums buzzing with anticipation. Most are pointing towards one idea, and I'm about to spell it out in case you haven't thought along these lines, as well as address a couple of other questions that I still have. There are, obviously, gigantic spoilers in the following paragraphs.

So, at the end of the episode, we saw the following: The Doctor crosses into his own time stream to rescue Clara, and succeeds in finding her and whisking her to safety. However, just before he does this, he sees a lone figure staring out across some barren plains (it's not exactly clear to me where this is - it could be Trenzalore, or it could be elsewhere). Then, the following conversation takes place:

Clara: Who's that?

The Doctor: Nevermind...Let's get back.

Clara: But who is he?

The Doctor: He's me.There's only me here, that's the point, now let's get back.

Clara: But I never saw that one. I saw all of you, eleven faces, all of them you. You're the Eleventh Doctor.

The Doctor: I said he was me. I never said he was The Doctor!

Clara: I don't understand!

The Doctor: Look, my name, my real name. That is not the point. The name I choose is 'The Doctor'. The name you choose, it's like a promise you make...He's the one who broke the promise.

(Clara faints)

The Doctor: Clara! Clara!

(The Doctor picks Clara up)

The Doctor: He is my secret.

Unnamed Figure: What I did, I did without choice.

The Doctor: I know.

Unnamed Figure: In the name of peace, and sanity.

The Doctor: But not in the name of The Doctor!

(The Doctor leaves)

(Unnamed figure turns around)

Then, as we see the figure is revealed to be John Hurt, whom we all know is starring in the 50th Anniversary special, the words 'Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor' flash up on screen. Suddenly, Stephen Moffat's promise that this episode would fundamentally change Doctor Who starts to become apparent - there is another Doctor that we never knew about.

The real fun, of course, is finding out where this Doctor fits into the series. After all, we know that this Doctor must come before the Eleventh, as Matt Smith's Doctor knows who he is (yes, the episode mentioned at one point about how The Doctor visiting his tomb before he actually died leaves him open to learning about his future, but it's not made to seem as if he learns everything about his future). And this is where the game-changing twist really occurs - if, logically, he has to be an earlier incarnation, and therefore can't possibly be one of the previous 10, he has to be a previously unknown Doctor, which means that somewhere along the line we need to start re-numbering our Doctor's.

And the smart money has to be that John Hurt is really Doctor No.9. Why? Let's take a look.

Cast your minds back to Rose, the opening episode of Series 1 (of the modern Doctor Who). The last Doctor to make an appearance before this was Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who movie. Christopher Ecclestone makes his appearance as the Ninth Doctor in this episode, but this is the only time the regeneration from one Doctor to the next is not shown on screen. All the others are shown, so we know that John Hurt cannot be any incarnation that we have previously seen on screen. Realistically, without any mis-direction, this has to be where John Hurt's Doctor fits in. Somewhere along the line, Paul McGann regenerated into John Hurt, who regenerated into Christopher Eccelstone. Of course, this truly is game-changing, because it means that Christopher Ecclestone is really the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant is really the Eleventh Doctor, and Matt Smith is really the Twelfth Doctor. So, if what we know about regenerations is true (Time Lords having twelve regenerations), the Doctor only has one regeneration left.

That's one part of the mystery potentially solved. The other is 'why has he been erased from The Doctor's history?'. At the moment, I (and seemingly most of Who-fandom) can only see one reason - this is the incarnation of The Doctor that locked the Time War and killed all the Time Lords and Daleks. What evidence is there? Well, he states that he did it 'without choice...in the name of peace, and sanity' - it's already been made obvious the guilt that The Doctor feels at having to sacrifice everyone else of his race, and even at the genocide of his greatest enemy, so this would fit into the idea that he believed it was the only option. Also, as The Doctor has the image of being a saviour and hero, it stands to reason that he would want this choice and the face that goes with it to be erased from history. It's hardly evidence really I suppose, but it fits pretty damn well.

Does this all fit too well? Perhaps, but perhaps there's a more obvious solution that I haven't seen, or even a less obvious solution. Perhaps it's not obvious at all. Perhaps he really is a future incarnation that travelled back to visit all his previous selves and they all disavowed him for something he told them.

I'm still betting on what I've already stated.

Now, there's something I haven't yet brought up, which is what led us to learn about Trenzalore in the first place, and that's the following quote: 'On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a Question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered - Doctor Who?'. This is, of course, what Dorium Maldovar asked The Doctor in the Series 6 finale, The Wedding of River Song. We're teased about getting to hear The Doctor's name throughout The Name of The Doctor, but in the end it's River Song who answers it (inaudibly). It's The Great Intelligence who ends up asking the question to gain entry into The Doctor's tomb, but even though we now know this part of the mystery, what isn't clear is why The Doctor didn't answer when 'no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer', as apparently he should have had to by some mystical force. I'm going to give Mr Moffat the benefit of the doubt and say that 'the fall of the Eleventh' doesn't mean a regeneration, but the moment when The Great Intelligence jumped into his time steam and began re-writing history. However, this still isn't clear, so might we be re-visiting this point in the anniversary special?

Finally, let's have a quick look at the secret of Clara. It's not easy to give a satisfactory explanation to such a puzzling mystery as Clara - I had a blog 90% written, talking about my frustrations with just how little we've been given in the way of clues compared to previous series, before I decided to let it be and see what the finale brought. Although I do wish there'd been a bit more like the regenerating girl from Series 6, or the bees disappearing from Series 4, in the end I'm damn happy with the reveal about Clara - she jumped into The Doctor's time stream, which splintered her throughout history so that she could save him where he needed it. It makes sense within the show, and I don't have anything negative to say about it. Except perhaps that I don't understand exactly why The Doctor only remembers her twice from this eleventh incarnation and never before. A side effect of jumping into his time stream perhaps? It's not that important really. 

So, there's five months to go until the 50th anniversary special, and I really can't think of a more exciting note to finish on. I'd have been tearing my hair out at the wait if Matt Smith had starting regenerating, and I'd have been grinning from ear to ear if David Tennant and Billie Piper had appeared, but as it happens I think Steven Moffat has topped both of those. Although I'd read the rumours about John Hurt's role in the 50th anniversary special as part of a 'trinity' involing David Tenant and Matt Smith, I hadn't imagined seeing him already, and although I knew this meant he might play one of The Doctor's incarnations, I didn't think it would be done in a way to hint he would lead to a re-numbering of the modern Doctor's. Truly, we've been left with one of the greatest cliffhangers that television has ever seen.

Salt R.I.P.

Salt - R.I.P.

This morning, I got the awful news that one of my cats who still lives with my Mum had died. Salt, aged 13 or 14, passed away peacefully in his sleep, my Mum finding him curled up in his cat basket. He was an amazing little guy, and a link to my childhood that has now, sadly, gone. His brother, Vinegar, is still alive, and has appeared to be in better health for the last few years, despite only having three legs and no tail, having lost them to a fox attack when he was only about a year old.

At the end of his life, Salt was a rather strange little fellow. His fur had gone a bit scraggly towards the end of his body, he made very odd noises when he slept (not quite snoring, not quite sighing), and he drooled. A lot. ALL THE TIME. 

But boy did I love him.

When we first got him and his brother, he was the 'grumpy' one, enjoying being stroked but not actively wanting to brush against anyone's leg or jump up on their lap. When the time came to have him neutered, however, that all changed overnight. I can remember bringing him home from the vet, letting him have soon food in the kitchen, and then watching him wander through to the living room and jump straight onto my Great Aunt's lap. After that, you couldn't keep him away (not that you'd want to). He would jump upon you at every opportunity, constantly pawing up and down on your stomach in the most annoying fashion, head butting you to get him to stroke you, and turning round to put his bottom in your face. I'm still yet to figure out the appeal of the latter of these movements, but I'm sure he had his reasons.

When he was about 3 years old, he was hit by a car. His pelvis was broken, and the vet gave us three options: Have him put down, have surgery to repair his pelvis, or let it heal naturally. No way in hell was I having that animal put down, and the vet couldn't guarantee that surgery would be any better than just letting it heal naturally, so we plumped for option 3. He had to stay isolated in a cage for a good number of months, which is not easy to do to an animal you care for, but eventually he was let out again, and made a full recovery.

His brother and he would playfight often on the living room rug in front of the fire during those early years. Mainly, he would tap Vinegar on the head several times, until Vinegar got annoyed and clocked him one back, before they'd wrestle around with fur flying everywhere, screeching at each other, and interrupting the riveting Hollyoaks storyline I'd be watching.

He also loved crisps. LOVED them. Any flavour. He'd knock them out of my hand if I wasn't quick enough. If I held several in my hand, putting them to my mouth one at a time, I needed constant vigilance if I wasn't going to be robbed by a furry little fellow. 

I can't remember exactly when he started drooling, or making the strange noises in his sleep, or looking like he'd dragged his bottom half of fur through a shoe brush. All I know is that I can't think of him any other way, wiping half a litre of drool across my face as he greeted me with a friendly morning headbutt.

Though I wasn't there to find him, I can picture exactly how he must have looked when my Mum found him, curled up peacefully in his cat basket. That's exactly how I wanted him to go, settling down to sleep one minute, just as he would at any other time, and then being at peace. I wonder if he got an inkling at all of what was about to happen. 

I wonder if he thought of me.

Cafe Review - Naughty and Nice - Bakewell

Café Review – Naughty and Nice, Bakewell

Ever been somewhere and thought, ‘YES! THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE MEANING OF LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING!’? No? Then clearly, you’ve never been to the ‘Naughty and Nice’ chocolatier and café in Bakewell.

Seriously, you must go to here. If it was a member of the Family Ness, it would be Perfection-Ness.

From the Hot Chocolate Soup (a cup of melted chocolate), to the Re-designed Milkshakes (vanilla milkshake with a chocolate bar blended in – and there’s a great choice of chocolate bar available), to the Greatest Cake I’ve Ever Eaten™ (Strawberry Mousse on the top layer, Cheesecake in the middle, and Chocolate Brownie on the bottom), it’s chocolate-heaven all the way through. And they don’t just serve chocolate-based food and drink – the Banana Milkshake was clearly made fresh with real bananas, and was by far the Greatest Banana Milkshake I’ve Ever Drunk™, and whatever the Chicken, Bacon and Tomato Sauce Panini was that I stole off my wife, it was so delicious she gave up trying to get it back off me and had to order another.

The staff are incredibly friendly, and I’ve clearly been in often enough for them to recognise me and ask how my son is. The theming of the building is wonderfully done as well, with a quirky informal style, even allowing you to leave messages on the bathroom walls in chalk.

In a connecting part of the building, is their actual chocolate shop, where they sell all manner of truffles, chocolate shoes, chocolate cars, chocolate Buddhas (yep, that’s right), hot chocolate on a stick (simply melt in hot milk), and specially designed cakes for any occasion you’d like. All of which taste great.

There’s so much love and care that goes into this café, it’s plain to see. It’s also helpful that the food is simply delicious, and the atmosphere is so friendly and inviting.

You just couldn’t wish for anything more from your local café.

Verdict: Visit now, lest your life be ever empty and hollow, having failed to sample that which belongs in the realm of the gods.

Graphic Novel Review - Days of the Bagnold Summer - Joff Winterhart (Author & Illustrator)

Graphic Novel Review - Days of the Bagnold Summer - Joff Winterhart (Author & Illustrator)

Recommended for: Adults/Teens

It's hard to describe Days of the Bagnold Summer. In many ways, it's almost as if someone on Jackanory has sat down to read someone's diary - it's set over the course of the six week summer holidays, and we see little excerpts from what happens to Sue Bagnold, 52, a Librarian, and her son Daniel, 15, a grumpy teenager. Nothing huge happens in it, no deaths or bank robberies, just an ordinary look at the relationship between a mother and son, and what they get up to over one summer. And yet it's utterly captivating. In some places heart-warming, in some heart-breaking, I could relate to so much in it (minus the strained relationship between mother and son - I don't think I was ever particularly grumpy). Daniel has changed from a fun, outgoing young boy who had fun with his mother, to one who is lazy and uninterested in anything but being in a band, and hanging round with his odd friend, Ky.

I can remember spending a few teenagers summers in a band with friends. The excitement of dreaming about becoming a rock star, mixed with the slight nagging feeling that we weren't particularly good. For a good while, that was all that interested me, and I even lost interest in doing any form of writing - that pretty much sums up Daniel's interests throughout the book (at one point, his mother asks him why he doesn't write poetry anymore), and Sue's worrying about her son's descent into moody teenage-dom seems completely understandable when we get to see how enthusiastic about life he used to be. The parent in me wonders whether I'll think the same when my son undergoes 'the change' in 15 years time, and whether my parents noticed it much.

In fact, it's Sue's reactions throughout that make this a strangely-uncomfortable read at times. She's obviously plunging further into despair as the book carries on, until things come to a bit of a head towards the end, and although she hasn't really got much to worry about (he's just being a teenager after all), it's sad to see how much she misses the son that she feels is gone. Although we get to see why Daniel might be a bit grumpier than usual this summer - his father, who lives over in America with his new family (who he seems to care far more about), has cancelled Daniel's visit which was to last all summer. It's not suprising he's so down and feeling rejected.

I think really this is what the story nails so well - you can see both sides of the coin throughout. Daniel is just being a teenager, particularly one who has been so badly let down by someone who should be one of the strongest figures in his life. However, frankly he's a complete arse to his mother at times, and it's easy to get annoyed with the character. Sue on the other hand, elicits a great deal of sympathy from having to deal with the changes to Daniel's personality and the way he treats her at times. But, at the end of the day, children grow up and however hard it may be (God knows how I'm going to cope...) it's a change that's going to happen and it's hardly the end of the world.

It's also clear that Daniel's father departing has deeply affected Sue, who doesn't have much social life, and only begins to rectify this (to the benefit of her relationship with Daniel) towards the end of the book. It fulfills well the archetypal 'summer that changed our lives', and at the end of it you really do feel like you've been on a journey with the two of them.

Days of the Bagnold Summer was one of two graphic novels nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2012, the first two ever to have been so, and in my opinion is richly deserved. Once I'd started it I didn't want to put it down, and there's something delightful about knowing you've read such a simple story, yet feel like you've been on an adventure with the characters. It's funny, heart-warming, heart-breaking, and illustrated in it's own quirky black-and-white style.

It goes firmly in the 'borrow from your library as quick as you can' pile.

10/10