The Great 'Which Universe Would I Rather Inhabit' Tournament Round 2 Match 3

The Great 'Which Universe Would I Rather Inhabit' Tournament Round 2 Match 3

Ultima vs Star Trek

Universe of medieval fantasy, magic and runes vs Universe of spaceships, warp speed and the holodeck.

I swear that I'm not going to use the holodeck as the reason for Star Trek winning in every round. There are negatives to the holodeck of course, although I can't think of any at the moment. But I promise, I'll make this a fair fight.

This in many ways is a re-tread of the previous match, The Elder Scrolls vs Star Wars. It's Fantasy vs Sci-Fi again, although the Elder Scrolls universe is a different place to Britannia, and the Star Trek universe is a different place to the Star Wars universe.

I've always loved the world of Britannia, from the way it's magic and moonstones travel system work, to the lands that make it up. It defined my childhood idea of a fantasy world as much as The Chronicles of Narnia did, and to this day I still consider the rune casting system of Ultima Underworld I & II to be my favourite magic system ever. Britannia, in reality, probably covers an area the size of Derbyshire, and so it's a place where I could get to know a smallish number of fantastical cities and locations very, very well. It has an array of imaginative enemies to fight, and of course I'd be applying for the role of Avatar, and be looking to save the lands that I love from danger.

The Star Trek universe, of course, is opposite in pretty much every way - there's no magic, it's Science Fiction rather than Fantasy, and the universe is the size of...well, the universe. There are countless races we know of, far more than in Britannia, and the sense of adventuring comes from discovering something new, rather than fulfilling a quest to rid the land of evil or discover some sort of treasure. Plus, you get to zoom around in a starship, and play on the holodeck, which can re-create anything you've ever known in the form of a virtual programme and...dammit, I said I wasn't going to rely on the holodeck.

As with the Elder Scrolls vs Star Wars, it's difficult when it comes down to a Sci-Fi vs Fantasy argument - at least if the two universes are from the same genre, you can compare how well they do the concept easily. There's far more of a difficult equation here, adding up how well you like a medieval-style world to explore versus an infinite universe out in space, along with a system of magic that has stuck with you for years versus a piece of technology that can allow you to experience anything you've ever wanted.

Now, as I said in that last match, I'm an explorer at heart, but where the Elder Scrolls series clearly trumps Star Wars in that respect (when does anyone ever do any exploring in the Star Wars films? They just fight a lot. Terrible way to live your life), both Britannia and the Star Trek universe are all about exploring. And really, that's what has led me to make my decision.

Congratulations Star Trek, you've just defeated the might of Britannia. Yep, it's not really the holodeck that has swung it in this round (although it always helps), but more that there's always going to be far more opportunity for exploration in my life if I live in the Star Trek universe. Britannia only has a limited number of cities and dungeons, but Star Trek has such a higher amount of planets to make contact with in the Alpha Quadrant of the galaxy alone that you could spend you whole life doing it and still not see a large proportion of it. Other than this reason, it's incredibly difficult to choose between the two, as they are both shining examples of their genres.

Advance, Star Trek.

Winner: Star Trek

Red Dwarf	Heroes	Buffy
Heroes
Buffy	Buffy
Battlestar Galactica
Star Wars	Star Wars	Elder Scrolls
Aliens
Elder Scrolls	Elder Scrolls
Terminator
Narnia	Ultima	Star Trek
Ultima
Star Trek	Star Trek
Middle Earth
Firefly	Marvel
Marvel
DC	DC
Doctor Who

Top 5 Favourite Fantasy Authors Of All Time

Bertass's Top 5 Favourite Fantasy Authors Of All Time

I'm going to start this one off with a controversial statement - JRR Tolkein is not on this list.

Phew, I'm glad that's out of the way.

Oh. You want an explanation, and to cry havoc. Ok, well, it's simple - the world owes a debt to Mr Tolkein, and the world of Fantasy in particular, but there are authors out there who's books I just enjoy reading more. The Lord of the Rings is a phenomenal piece in it's scale and ambition, but I have never been able to get over the fact that I find the style it's written in a little difficult to crack. In fact, without having seen the films first, I'm not sure when I would have made any headway, as I'd tried to read it once before and not been successful. I've also tried to read other books by Tolkein, Children of Hurin being the worst offtender, where I just couldn't get into them in the slightest.

Oh, and I've never read Game of Thrones.

So, allow yourselves a few minutes to berate me.

Done?

Let's move on.

*THERE ARE CERTAIN SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE - I'VE TRIED TO HINT WHEN THEY'RE ABOUT TO APPEAR, BUT BE WARNED!*

5. Kelley Armstrong
Known for: The Women of the Otherworld Series

We being with Canadian author Kelley Armstrong, who introduced me to the joys of having a lengthy continuing fantasy series, rather than a trilogy. The joy of a series, of course, is that you can tell an entire story within one book, but add to an overall arc with character- and world-building. And boy does Armstrong know how to do this well.

What is so great about her Women of the Otherworld series is that nearly all of the books are written from the viewpoint of a different character, for the entirety of that book. It keeps the series interesting, giving you a different set of ethics and understanding of the world each time, and, although some authors do this within a single book, if you like to keep your narrative confined to just one character to keep all the mysteries and suspense of a novel intact without the risk of another character spoiling it in their mind, Armstrong's books are most certainly for you.

In a change to the type of fantasy I usually read (usually heroic, epic or high), the Women of the Otherworld series is set in our reality, with supernatural beings hiding in plain sight. It's nice to read something different, and this secret world-within-our-world that Armstrong has built, and the characters that inhabit it, is so engaging that I've come back to it time and time again. I love seeing characters from stories I've already read cropping up as the narrator, or focal point of the story, and seeing their personalities in more detail.

Armstrong has written a couple of other young adult series, and although I haven't personally read any (I had too much fun with the Women of the Otherworld to have time to try another series of hers!), I know they've been very well received.

Whenever anyone wants a new fantasy or paranormal series to try in the library, Kelley Armstrong comes up each time. For a series to still grip you after 13 novels, you know the author has to be a master at writing wonderful worlds and colourful characters.

Must-Read: Stolen
4. Sarah Ash
Known for: The Tears of Artamon Trilogy

At university, like most people with a student loan, it struck me that I suddenly had a vast wealth that I could spend however I damn well pleased. Food had to come into it somewhere, but obviously the vast majority was for me to spend on 'other' items. With a Waterstones on campus, I took advantage early on of expanding my book collection, and still being in the grip of Lord of the Rings fever, I decided to plump for a few more fantasy books, one of which was Lord of Snow and Shadows, book one in the Tears of Artamon trilogy by Sarah Ash.

Now, it might be going a little over the top to say that my life would have turned out very differently had Sarah Ash not come into my life at that time, but I must credit her with kick starting my true love of fantasy fiction. The Tears of Artamon trilogy captivated me from start to finish, forcing me to rush back out to buy the next two books before I'd even finished the first, lest I go longer than an hour before starting the next book in the series. The world that Sarah weaved made me want to be there, the characters were deliciously evil or inspiringly good, and the symbiotic relationship that Gavril Nagarian has with Drakhaoul, forcing him to do evil in the hope of doing good, is one of the best I have ever read.

To this day, it's a trilogy that I recommend whenever anyone comes into the library, and if it wasn't for the fact that I've only read the three books in this trilogy (there are a couple more set in the past of the same world as Tears of Artamon, and a couple more stand-alone novels) she'd probably be higher up.

Must-Read: The Tears of Artamon Trilogy

3. CS Lewis
Known for: The Chronicles of Narnia

If Tolkein is the most influential fantasy writer of all time, CS Lewis must be a close second. The reason that children have to be warned not to play in wardrobes, his 7-book Chronicles of Narnia are my fondest literary moment from childhood, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my favourite book of all time. The world that Lewis built is rich with talking beasts, islands of adventure, and some of the best known characters in all of literary history. Everybody knows who Aslan is, even if not everybody has read the books.

Out of all the choices in this top 5, Lewis is the only one writing in what could be termed an 'old-fashioned' style ('You rotten beast, Edmund!'). I've never quite been able to put my finger on what it is that separates an 'old-fashioned' style, with a 'modern' style, but I could show you examples, and I'm sure you know what I mean. I love it all the more for this in many way, even though I worry nowadays that a lot of children are put off by this style.

The whole concept of finding a world within a wardrobe is exactly what childhood imagination is all about - finding an object and turning it into a vehicle for adventure, whether it's a cardboard box becoming a plane to take you over mountains, to a cardboard tube becoming a sword for you to slay dragons. Not only do we have wonderful adventures in the land of Narnia itself, we also journey to the Outlying Lands and explore everything up to the edge of the world. It's all painted in such a way that we don't have to put any effort into imagining it - the pictures fly out of the pages at us, leaving us in no doubt that we're off in a magical land.

It was hard to pick a must-read out of the seven books, but for my money the lands visited in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are the most exciting of all, from it's invisible enemies to it's magical dragon. Any time I imagine the journey I would want to take readers on as an author, I immediately head to this quest, and realise the best journey in the world has already been written

Must-Read: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2. Fiona McIntosh
Known for: The Trinity Trilogy, The Quickening Trilogy

It's difficult to pick between them when you have two authors that you can't put down - both leave you hungry for the next books in the series, both can write a twisting, turning plot, and both have heroes and villains to make you cheer and jeer. In many ways, Fiona McIntosh deserves to be number 1 in this list - I've read multiple trilogies by her, can write an evil character better than anyone else in the business, and she's one of the first authors I recommend to other people. It's for two reasons that she misses out on the top spot - firstly, I read Jennifer Fallon's books first, and secondly, there's just something about Fallon's The Demon and The Second Sons trilogies that stand out that little bit more than The Trinity Trilogy, The Quickening Trilogy, and the Percheron Trilogy. But don't misunderstand - McIntosh writes some of the most exciting and un-put-downable books that I've ever read. And my GOD, can she write a villain.

I'll start with that last statement - the villain Goth from The Trinity Trilogy is one of the most evil and despicable bad guys that I've ever read, and no matter what she throws at him, he won't die! If you think the Terminator was tough, try throwing him up against Goth. You think Sauron had it bad losing his ring? *SPOILER* This guy had his 'Little Goth' chopped off and still manages to stick around to cause havoc. *END SPOILER*
In her Percheron Trilogy, she throws in one the biggest twists I've ever read in a book, outside of something like Game of Thrones. *SPOILER* The main character, Boaz (or at least, the person I assumed to be the main protagonist) dies in the third book, in a place I was least expecting it, and in many ways without a fanfare - to me, this was an incredibly brave move, which led the way to another character being set as the real protagonist of the story. Similar, I suppose, to how if you take all six Star Wars films, the real protagonist of the lot is Anakin Skywalker. Although I try not to acknowledge the prequels, as I'm sure most of you do, so take of that what you will. *END SPOILER* There are several instances where she delivers a shocking twist throughtout her different series, and we never know whether there's going to be a follow up that explains the trick in further detail, or whether it really is the death of a character, for example.

She also has the ability to create a complex story and keep it easy to follow - in The Trinity Trilogy, takes the concept of a conflict from years before being played out once again through re-incarnation, which could have become hideously complicated, but was spread out so well over the trilogy that it becomes a natural way for the story to progress, and keeps a grand idea within easy reach.

You know with Fiona McIntosh that you're going to be gripped from start to finish, with characters that you fall in love with, to those you can't wait to see get justice. You'll be twisted and turned, shocked and delighted, and you'll want to hunt out the next series to get your teeth into as soon as you've finished the previous one.

Must-Read: The Trinity Trilogy

1. Jennifer Fallon
Known for:

And so to our winner. Arise, Jennifer Fallon! I can honestly say that there isn't a trilogy that I have devoured as quickly, and as passionately, as The Second Sons Trilogy, followed in close second by The Demon Child trilogy, both written by the author. I read The Demon Child trilogy first, and as with Sarah Ash, I had to rush out to buy the next novels halfway through the first. In fact, I loved them so much that I ended up buying all of The Second Sons as well, based purely on the fact that I was entranced by her ability to weave a tale.

She has a real gift for making you love or hate a character, twisting a story on its head and making you shout and scream at the unjustice that has just occurred in the story as she does so. She plants grand plans in a story, leaving you unable to understand how she can possibly pull it off, and then doing so in such a manner that it takes your breath away. Only Fiona McIntosh comes close to her with these two points.

I knew that Fallon should top this list when I realised that every time I come across a fantasy reader in the library, my first question is 'Have you read anything by Jennifer Fallon?'. My second question is 'Shall I order you one of them in?'. When one of her books arrives as a request, I can feel the excitement I knew as a first time reader of her books, and also a pang of jealousy as I realise someone else is lucky enough to be embarking on that same journey. 

In addition, there really could be only one winner when two of her trilogies are my two favourite trilogies of all time, ahead of Sarah Ash's Tears of Artamon. Whilst I'm not sure you could classify her work as full-blown 'epic' fantasy like you would Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire, and the ambition and scope of the worlds in her books doesn't reach the heights of these, she creates such wonderful worlds that they work as more intimate settings. At least, intimate compared to Middle Earth or Westeros - they don't exactly feel small when you're reading them. It's a Fallon-esque world that I want to write about whenever I sit down to plan a story - a tale of neighbouring countries who are friends and enemies, with the low-born rising up to take their place amongst the high-born.

If I had to sum up exactly what it is that makes Jennifer Fallon my favourite fantasy author of all time, it's this: no other fantasy author has kept me as utterly hooked to a series as she has, caring about its characters, applauding the solutions the characters find to the problems they find themselves in, and the physical need to turn the page to see how they'll fight on for another day.

And she managed this with TWO trilogies.

Must-Read: The Second Sons Trilogy

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 4 - Aliens of London

Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 4 - Aliens of London

Following a quick recap on what happened in the opening episode, the Tardis appears on Rose's council estate, 12 hours after she originally left. She goes home to say hi to her Mum, and is a little shocked to learn that The Doctor got the date wrong again, and really it's been 12 months. I hope he's going to pay for Jackie's broken mug, as she drops it in shock when Rose appears, too late for The Doctor to warn her.

After the credits, Jackie rants at Rose and slaps The Doctor, while a policeman sits quietly to one side wishing he was back at the station. Calming down a little, Jackie questions Rose again for answers as to where she's been, but Rose only tells her 'travelling'. Well, she isn't lying.

Later, on the roof of their block of flats, Rose and The Doctor laugh about him getting slapped and how Jackie is never going to come travelling with them, and he confesses that he is 900 years old. Rose laments being unable to tell anyone about aliens as no-one else knows they exist, when an alien spacecraft flies overhead, crashing into Big Ben and then The Thames. You were saying, Rose? Naturally, then run off to investigate, and The Doctor is very excited to see humanity's first contact with aliens, telling Rose that this is the reason he travels through time, to see history. Also, the army are there within about 15 seconds, so if we ever have a real alien invasion I'm afraid my expectations have been raised.  

Returning to the flat to watch it all on TV, despite Jackie and friends talking over it all, they learn that an alien body has been found. We follow a General into the hospital where it has been taken, and Tosh from Torchwood is the pathologist, covering for Owen who has a hangover (so we later learn in an episode of Torchwood). The General tells her experts are being flown in, and to hide the body for now. She questions whether it's true about what everyone is saying about the Prime Minister, which a news report in the next scene suggests is that he is missing. At No.10, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North is hanging around (something she will do far more of in the near future) waiting for a meeting, but is rebuffed as Joseph Green MP is declared Acting Prime Minister, who likes to fart in public. Green is met by Magaret Blaine of Mi5 and Oliver Charles, Transport Liaison, where Blaine reports she personally escorted the Prime Minister to his car, which appears to have vanished. The three of them retreat to the Prime Minsiter's cabinet room, to fart some more and look over the emergency protocols in place for an alien invasion. They also like to laugh evilly along with farting, which can mean only one thing - they think farting is funny! And also, they're aliens.

Back at the flat, Rose questions The Doctor when he goes for a wander. He gets excited again thinking about first contact, but she makes him promise he won't disappear before he goes. Unknown to The Doctor however, Mickey has spotted him but arrives too late to stop the Tardis leaving, crashing head first into a wall in spectacular fashion. There's a bit more of The Doctor's patented 'smack-the-Tardis-until-it-works-properly' technique, and then we're back with Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North trying to charm Kurt from Teachers into letting her see Green, but when she tries a direct approach he tells her to stop being hysterical and to bugger off. She doesn't bugger off however, and heads into the cabinet room, where she discovers the emergency protocols. There's clearly something strange about them however, as the music darkens and she looks shocked.

Tosh hears a lot of banging down in the morgue, and The Doctor manages to materialise next to a room full of soldiers, who take him captive. When Tosh screams however, he uses his magic powers of shouting at them to get them to abandon the plan to hold him captive and instead obey his every mood, running to find her. After he sends them to search the rest of the hospital for the alien, it turns out that it never actually left the room they are in, but unfortunately one guard panics at the sight of a small pig on two legs running at it grunting and shoots it dead (God knows what he'd have done with Animal Farm). The Doctor berates him, pointing out that the alien was just scared, and shooting a scared person might have been a little bit over the top.

Back in the cabinet room, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North hides as Green and the General argue. Green, Blaine and Charles tire of the conversation, farting in his general (hi-oh!) direction, revealing themselves to be aliens by unzipping their foreheads and stepping out of the human skin they've been wearing. The General screams as Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North looks on, so presumably they've eaten him.

As The Doctor and Tosh look over the body, he explains that it isn't an alien at all, but a regular pig which has been modified and placed in an alien ship. Tosh babbles on a little bit, not noticing that The Doctor has left to save the planet.

Back at the flat, Mickey arrives to see Rose, and we learn he was taken in for questioning five times, suffering a lot of accusations and abuse from the locals. On the cusp of telling Jackie the truth, Rose flees when she learns The Doctor has disappeared, but just as they argue about whether he is Rose's boyfriend, the Tardis re-appears. Looks like Jackie will be finding out after all. Mickey gets all up in The Doctor's face as Jackie does the usual fleeing job, ringing an alien helpline to report that she has seen an alien. This flags up a warning, which Kurt from Teachers notices. Back in the Tardis, The Doctor does some maintenance, as Rose tries to make up with Mickey. He forgives her when she chews on her lip, and then The Doctor discovers that the ship came from Earth in the first place.

Back in the cabinet, Charles wears the General's skin instead of his previous disguise, although they keep farting just as much. Kurt from Teachers rushes to tell them that The Doctor has been found, and that he is the ultimate expert who needs locating. In the Tardis, The Doctor spots UNIT on the a TV report. Mickey says that he's been researching The Doctor over the last year, and has found loads of dirt on him, but none of this matters when the army grab them all outside the Tardis. Mickey somehow escapes behind some bins, despite running away in full view of an entire army squadron, but as it turns out they were just being escorted to Downing Street, he probably chose the wrong option. The Doctor reminisces about the old days and drinking Lloyd George under the table, and Jackie talks to a rather farty policeman. Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North mingles at the politicians meeting which The Doctor is cleared to attend, but as Rose isn't and Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North wants information, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North decides to stay outside with her.

The Doctor tells everyone that the ship was a diversion to stop a crash in the North Sea from being investigated too carefully. The Prime Minister then falls out of a cupboard in front of Rose, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North and Kurt from Teachers, and he looks a bit dead. The Doctor declares that the crash is a trap, designed to get the senior members of cabinet together. Blaine confronts Rose, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North and Kurt from Teachers, and the policeman goes all unzippy on Jackie. Green reveals himself as an alien to the room by farting (always a dead giveaway). as the General unzips to reveal the alien underneath. Blaine does the same, and everyone all looks a bit shocked to meet The Slitheen. The whole of the cabinet room are immobilised by an alien device, kind of like an alien taser, and we leave the episode on a cliffhanger as the aliens laugh manically.

Luckily for the room, the farting should stop now though.

I can remember thinking at the time, and I'm feeling it again, that this was when I really started to like Doctor Who. It's got an alien crash landing, aliens posing as humans, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, and a terrific cliffhanger. If there's one thing you'll hear Doctor Who fans say about Russell T Davies, it's that he knows how to write a brilliant cliffhanger. Not always satisfactorally resolve them, but he sure as hell can do the build up.

One of the great things about the show is the amount of classic British television actors that you recognise, and they're in abundance here, from David Verrey as MP Green, to Navin Chowdhry as Indra Ganesh (Kurt from Teachers) - no, I couldn't tell you every show they've been in, but they're familiar faces and it's great to have so many on board.

The acting is top notch again - the Slitheen in human form are all deliciously evil, and there's some top acting between Billie Piper, Camille Coduri and Noel Clarke as Rose, Jackie and Mickey come to terms with her returning after a year. There's more fine acting from Eccleston too, when he berates the guard for shooting dead the pig - even the simple words 'it was scared!' are laced with sadness, anger, confusion, particularly when we learn soon after that it was just an ordinary pig. Maybe I'm hyper-emotional at the moment - I've been reading Emma Donaghue's Room, which you'll understand why if you've read it - but this almost had me sobbing at the thought of what that pig would have gone through.

There's more classic Mickey, with the following exchange:

Rose: So...twelve months... have you been seeing anyone else?

Mickey: No.

Rose: (Smiling) Ok...

Mickey: Mainly because everyone thinks I murdered you.

Rose: Right...

It's delivered so wonderfully deadpan by Noel Clarke, and although the development of Rose and The Doctor's relationship was better for being just the two of them in the first few episodes, it's great to now how Mickey and Jackie taking a more active role. The bickering betwen The Doctor, Rose, Mickey and Jackie, no matter which combination, was always something I enjoyed first time round, and I'm loving it again. In many ways, I think this is one of the reasons why I find Rose to be my favourite companion - the relationships she had with others was such a strong point of the show, and maybe this is why Martha never gets as high accolades - although we see the rest of Martha's family, they aren't memorable like Jackie and Mickey, and the writer's seem to rectify this with Donna and Wilf, and Donna's mum to a lesser extent.

My only real gripe is that, although I like the odd fart joke, it still makes it seem a bit too childish, particularly Eccleston's 'Do you mind not farting?' line, which doesn't work for me at all. Yes, again I accept it's a children's show, particularly so in Series 1, but that doesn't make me like it any more.

How It Fits Into The Show As A Whole

Certainly by the Christmas episode of Series 2, aliens will definitely have become known to Earth, but as of this episode it's unclear as to whether or not the pig crash landing and the Slitheen invasion will count as First Contact.

Bad Wolf Sightings

A horrible little child spray paints Bad Wolf onto the side of the Tardis. Yes, it's all part of Rose's plan in the final episode to spread the Bad Wolf meme through the universe and ultimately this will help save it, but it's still criminal damage. I hope they catch him, and show no leniency.

Overall

The strongest episode so far, it's full of excitement and intrigue, with some excellent development in the relationships between characters, and it ends on a cracking cliffhanger.

9/10

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.