As I said before, Kill the Moon is my controversial favourite of Series 8. I completely get that the ending is ridiculous, with the moon being an egg which immediately hatches a new egg exactly the same size BUT I feel the path that gets to that point is really strong. Courtney is actually excellent and a lot better than I expected, really adding to the plot. The production is also AMAZING, the way they added effects to the scenes shot in Tennerife make for some of the most impressive shots the show has seen. I think that's a really uderrated aspect of it.

 

I maybe wouldn't have placed '42' as low but it is quite a poor knock off from my favourite episodes.

I liked Let's Kill Hitler. Sure it's gimmicky but it was a good fun episode :lol:

 

93 The Snowmen

2012 Christmas Special

Doctor: Eleventh

Companion: Clara Oswin Oswald

Also starring: Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Strax, Clara Oswald

 

2012's Christmas special saw the Doctor hiding out in Victorian London. He'd just lost Amy and Rory and is avoiding all human contact. We're also introduced, at the very start of the episode, to a young boy who builds a snowman, and the snowman begins to speak to him. The young man grows up to be Dr. Simeon, who we meet later in the episode. The Doctor meets a young woman called Clara Oswin Oswald, and while he tries to make her forget the encounter, Strax's incompetence with the memory worm doesn't allow this to be completed before snowmen pop up and attack them. The Doctor instructs Clara to picture the snowmen melting, and they do so in front of them. The Doctor then leaves, and Clara follows him, finding he has parked the TARDIS on a cloud. The next day she meets with Vastra and Jenny, before returning to her job as governess for two children, one of whom is having bad dreams about the previous governess returning from the dead. The Doctor investigates Dr. Simeon and finds a large snowglobe in his office. He speaks to the Great Intelligence, the entity that spoke to Simeon via the snowman when he was young. The Doctor visits the pond, and the frozen body of the old governess attacks Clara and the children. Dr. Simeon arrives with more snowmen and demands the body of the governess, which is being used as a template for ice creatures that will not melt. The Doctor and Clara try to escape, but the ice governess pulls Clara off the cloud, and she falls to the ground. The Doctor then tricks Dr. Simeon with the memory worm, which causes the Great Intelligence's power to be stopped. Clara later dies, before uttering the words "run you clever boy and remember", which causes the Doctor to investigate further as he remembers Oswin Oswald from the Dalek asylum saying these words before her death.

 

This might not be a favourite of mine but much like The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, it's a really nice story for Christmas, and Clara Oswin Oswald is likeable, particularly in her scenes with the children. Strax is hilarious in the comedy moments, particularly with the memory worm scene near the beginning, and the snowmen are an interesting idea. My criticism is that it feels a little bit long to me and kinda drags a bit, but otherwise it's a generally enjoyable episode.

That 'Dalek' episode from the first series was very poor indeed and that flashback episode with Rose's dad in the second series just didn't work at all.

 

 

 

92 Robot of Sherwood

Series 8, Episode 3

Doctor: Twelfth

Companion: Clara Oswald

 

Robot of Sherwood saw the Twelfth Doctor's first trip into the past, after Clara insisted that she wanted to meet Robin Hood. The Doctor was adamant that he didn't exist and was purely fictional, but when they arrive, the Doctor doesn't just come face to face with Robin Hood, he challenges him to a duel, using a spoon :') They go to meet Robin's merry men, but the Doctor is still in disbelief. They all attend an archery competition held by the Sheriff of Nottingham, but it ends up being yet another match between the Doctor and Robin. The Sheriff orders his knights to take the Doctor, as he was intrigued by him, but when Robin cuts off one of their arms, he realises they're robots. They allow themselves to be captured, and are chained up in the cellar. Clara is taken to meet with the Sheriff, leaving the Doctor and Robin to bicker. Clara manipulates the Sheriff into revealing his plan - he saw a spacecraft crash and has been repairing it since for himself. The Doctor and Robin escape and go to locate the spacecraft. The Doctor realises here that the engines are leaking, causing the area to be more like Sherwood Forest. Clara and the Sheriff arrive at the ship, and Robin saved Clara by jumping out of the window into the water below. The Doctor is captured again and is held captive in the gold refinery. He leads a revolt with the other prisoners against the knight robots, and Robin, Clara and the merry men arrive to help face off against the Sheriff, who perishes after a sword fight with Robin. The ship does take off but doesn't have enough power to leave the atmosphere, so the Doctor, Clara and an injured Robin work together to fire a golden arrow to give the ship one last power lift. Despite the Doctor thinking Robin is a robot, he realises he is actually real, but the story is remembered as a legend.

 

This episode's a pretty fun romp I think, a lot of people criticise Capaldi's Doctor for being overly grumpy in his early days and I don't disagree really, but it does make for some pretty amusing scenes in this episode. The Robin plot is interestingly handled, and it's good to see him come full circle by the end with the Doctor. The actual alien plot once again feels a bit sidelined however, and the spaceship idea feels quite weak, but otherwise it's an enjoyable episode, not a classic but fun nevertheless.

That Robin Hood one was aaaawful.

 

I liked that Xmas episode though, perfect for Xmas Day!

I liked The Snowmen, I remember Clara being a very good companion in that one. Also how she said 'It's smaller on the outside' as opposed to the usual 'It's bigger on the inside'.

 

I will agree that the Robin Hood one was a little odd though :lol:

wasn't a fan of the Robin Hood episode. Even by Historical standards it was a weak episode (soz Iz but the historicals generally are the worst, The Girl In The Fireplace being the obvious big exception)

Girl in the Fireplace was a rip off of Masque of the Red Death.

wasn't a fan of the Robin Hood episode. Even by Historical standards it was a weak episode (soz Iz but the historicals generally are the worst, The Girl In The Fireplace being the obvious big exception)

 

I mean, quite apart from me being a historical loon I find most DW aliens so cartoony and ridiculous, I'm just not the biggest fan of the series' original future lore - they can be good too, they just need to have some sort of good human element. I prefer it for its ability to use interesting historical settings to meld the sci-fi element with. And when they're pretty serious like The Snowmen (and god knows Victorian England is a setting that the show has overused just a little) it's really quite powerful, I definitely recall that episode as the best I ever liked Clara and it's one of the better Christmas specials.

 

No, they're not all good, and as I haven't seen Robot Of Sherwood I can't speak for that, but then Robin Hood as a story has never really been my favourite as far as legends go, when Star Trek did a Robin Hood episode that was pretty awful. The whole robot thing does not seem ENCOURAGING either.

Not usually a fan of the historicals either or even Robin Hood but I actually enjoyed 'Robot of Sherwood'! I agree that it's probably the best use of the inital grumpy Doctor.

 

The Snowman is one of the better Christmas episodes but it is a bit of a mixed episode. The stairway to the clouds is really beautiful and the entrance to the new TARDIS is done brilliantly. Victorian Clara is also amazing and she really should have been the proper companion, shows the trouble was in the writing and not Jenna! Elsewhere though there is some dodgy production with the Ice woman being tragically bad even when the episode debuted. The big snowglobe could not be any less threatening either. Pretty impressive that Ian McKellen voiced the Great Intelligence though!

 

91 The Doctor’s Wife

Series 6, Episode 4

Doctor: Eleventh

Companion: Amy Pond, Rory Williams

 

In this episode, the Doctor receives a distress call in a communication cube from another Time Lord, so he traces the signal to a rift that goes outside the universe. They land in what looks like a junkyard, before the TARDIS shuts down and its matrix disappears. They meet the inhabitants: Uncle, Auntie, Idris and a green-eyed Ood called Nephew. Idris is intrigued by the Doctor but is locked up by Nephew. While Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS, the Doctor finds that Uncle and Auntie are assembled from parts of many species, including Time Lords, hence the signal. They're controlled by the asteroid, named House, which is what removed the TARDIS matrix to feed off the artron energy. House transfers itself into the TARDIS and plays mind games with Amy and Rory, while the personality of the TARDIS has been put into Idris. Her body doesn't have long to last without House's support, but she manages to help the Doctor create a makeshift TARDIS to save Amy and Rory. Idris gives Rory directions via a psychic connection to the old (RTD era) console room. The gang reunite and the safety protocols of the TARDIS transfer them back to the main console room, where a dying Idris releases the TARDIS matrix back into the console, destroying House.

 

This is probably quite a controversial opinion as I've seen a lot of love for this episode online, but it's never really done it for me. Series 6 suffers a lot for me by being overly complicated in parts, and this episode is an example of that for me. There's a lot happening and it took a few rewatches to totally understand what was going on. Idris is just a bit annoying I find too, although the idea of the consciousness of the TARDIS being transferred to a human is a cool idea and I'll always respect them for doing something different. The Amy and Rory scenes inside the TARDIS are great too even if I wasn't totally sure what was going on at first. I definitely don't hate this episode but it's simply not a big favourite.

omg NOO!!! Such a brilliantly unique episode, bringing new ideas to the show!!

omg NOO!!! Such a brilliantly unique episode, bringing new ideas to the show!!

But it's so confusing :(

 

90 The Curse of the Black Spot

Series 6, Episode 3

Doctor: Eleventh

Companion: Amy Pond, Rory Williams

 

Just above The Doctor's Wife is the episode that preceded it. The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive on a pirate ship in the 17th century following a distress call, stranded in the ocean. The crew are being antagonised by the Siren, a blue humanoid creature that marks her victims with a black spot on the hand once they're injured. The victims are lulled into a trance-like state, where they want to go towards her, and their death. Rory cuts himself when he arrives but the Doctor and Amy keep him from moving towards the Siren. The Doctor realises that the Siren is using water as a portal, so they need to go to the driest part of the ship - the artillery. They find Captain Avery's son Toby on ship, he'd stowed away and had a fever. The Doctor attempts to investigate with the TARDIS but it dematerialises by itself, and when another shipmate is killed, they realise that reflective surfaces are what the Siren is using as a portal. After Toby and Rory are taken, the Doctor theorises that they are not dead, and must prick themselves to be taken too. The Siren's touch doesn't kill, but takes them to a ship, invisible in the same location as the pirate ship. They find all the people who were taken, being cared for by the Siren who is the medical nurse of the now abandoned ship. Amy convinces the Siren to release Rory into her care, and her and the Doctor have to resuscitate him to keep him alive. Captain Avery stays on board the ship, as Toby and the others are unable to leave, and pilots it away to explore the stars.

 

This is another example of a filler episode really. It's pretty good filler at that, the pirate ship setting allows for a good claustrophobic feel and the Siren is an interesting villain, but I feel the conclusion is slightly weak. Rory dying once again became a running joke at this point and I'm unsure of how I feel about the Siren actually being a medical nurse, caring for the crew that were previously thought to have been killed. Overall, a decent enjoyable episode and on the bright side, it's not super duper confusing like many of the surrounding episodes :')

Doctor's Wife never did it for me, didn't feel connected to the setting and it all felt so... abstract. However, Curse Of The Black Spot was a rare highlight in series 6 for me because of pirates and a fairly decent threat at the start. I mean, not the best pirates I've ever seen and a bit fillerish once the threat turned out to be a computer (it's always a computer, can't just be a simple legendary monster, must be an alien computer) but it was a nice distraction from the main plot which I was not into.

Omfg skipped that awful pirates episode.

 

And that Doctor Wife one was trash.

http://i.imgur.com/UaSyHYQ.jpg

 

89 The Name of the Doctor

Series 7, Episode 13

Doctor: Eleventh

Companion: Clara Oswald, River Song

Also starring: Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Strax

 

The series 7 finale kicks off with Madame Vastra and Jenny preparing for a "conference call" with Strax, River Song and Clara in a dream state. Vastra informs the others of something she was told by Clarence DeMarco, a villainous murderer who had been seeing visions of masked men - "The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave, and it is discovered". The masked men, known as Whisper Men, break into Vastra and Jenny's house, and Jenny is killed while in her dream state. The rest of them wake up, and the Doctor is with Clara. She tells him what happened, and he knows he must go to Trenzalore, where his grave is located. An echo of River appears on Trenzalore to Clara, giving her directions of where to go and what to do. After being chased by the Whisper Men, the Doctor, Clara, Vastra, Strax and a revived Jenny meet Dr. Simeon, who is possessed by the Great Intelligence, who says he will kill the Doctor's allies if he does not whisper his name, to open his grace. The echo if River whispers his name after the Doctor refuses, and they walk in to see the Doctor's timestream. Dr. Simeon walks inside, scattered across the Doctor's live, to kill him across time. Clara realises she has to follow Dr. Simeon, remembering what the Doctor had told her about her previous incarnations, and Dr. Simeon is defeated, with Vastra, Jenny and Strax saved. The Doctor reveals he could hear and see River all along, but didn't out of pain as it was after her death. He then walks into his timestream to save Clara, and the episode closes with a glimpse of the War Doctor.

 

This is very much an episode of two halves for me. I love the conference call aspect, and the idea of Jenny being killed while in her dream, being so clearly terrified, was an excellent idea. However when we get to Trenzalore, it all goes very messy and continuity heavy. By this point, I'd stopped caring about Clara's echoes and ultimately I feel it bogged down her first run as companion, and we never found out how the Doctor and Clara got out of his timestream. I guess it wraps things up nicely but as a standalone episode it has to be quite low down unfortunately.

I think The Name of the Doctor was a good episode (don't really remember the other so they can't have been great)

 

88 The Return of Doctor Mysterio

2016 Christmas Special

Doctor: Twelfth

Companion: Nardole

 

The most recent episode in the countdown now! The Return of Doctor Mysterio sees the Doctor meeting a young boy named Grant in New York, 1992. He assists the Doctor with a plan of his, but swallows a wish-granting gemstone, thinking it is medicine, and this grants his wish to become a superhero. Before the Doctor leaves, he makes Grant promise not to use his powers. The Doctor returns to New York in 2016 with Nardole to investigate Harmony Shoals, where he bumps into researcher Lucy Fletcher. They figure out that the place is being run by aliens - living brains, in fact, that can transplant themselves into any creature when necessary. The group are rescued from the aliens by a superhero named The Ghost, who takes Lucy home, then returns as the nanny for her child without her knowing anything about his double life. The Doctor tracks him down again, before getting on board the alien ship, while Lucy prepares for an interview with the Ghost, still unaware it is Grant. The ship is set to crash on New York, with the plan being that everything but the Harmony Shoal building is destroyed, leading the world leaders to think that they'd be safe inside Harmony Shoal buildings and the aliens can then take over. Grant stops the ship from crashing, revealing his identity to Lucy.

 

I must confess, I've only seen this episode once so far (waiting for the series 10 boxset which it should be on... :lol:) so of course I can't say how well it holds up with repeated watches, but nevertheless, I find it a very fun episode. It's perfect for Christmas, a nice little story with some good action. Although I wouldn't want this type of episode regularly, I think it worked as a one-off and the supporting cast were pretty strong (and this is normally one of my biggest criticisms of the Moffat era). I'd be interested to see these aliens again actually, at the forefront of a story this time as opposed to sharing it with the superhero storyline.