That superhero episode was DIRE. Thankfully series 10 has been a big improvement thus far.

Think I fell asleep during that Xmas one.

 

Name of the Doctor was nice -a bit of a rip off of an anime, but ok.

Yeah, I did!! I was asleep during nesrly all of it it was so boring.

I agree i'd like to see the aliens again from the xmas episode just gone but it was a fun ep but nothing amazing was slightly boring in places

 

87 Victory of the Daleks

Series 5, Episode 3

Doctor: Eleventh

Companion: Amy Pond

 

The first series 5 episode drops out, leaving only series 1 and 4 with all their episodes in tact! Victory of the Daleks continues from the end of The Beast Below, where the Doctor was summoned by old friend Winston Churchill. The Doctor however arrives late, so Churchill has instead enlisted the help of Professor Edwin Bracewell. They show the Doctor their latest weapon against the Germans, which the Doctor immediately recognises... as a Dalek! Bracewell believes he invented the "Ironsides", as does Churchill, and they don't believe the Doctor when he tells them otherwise. He attacks the Daleks, shouting "I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks!", which activates a Progenator device on a nearby orbiting Dalek ship. The Daleks reveal that they in fact created Bracewell, and teleport to their ship. The Doctor follows in the TARDIS while Amy stays behind on Earth. These Daleks plan to create a whole new race of themselves, made of pure Dalek DNA, unlike these ones which were created by Davros' cells. The Daleks fire an energy beam at the Earth, turning the lights on when they need to be off during the air raid. The Progenator makes five new Daleks, all in different colours: Supreme (white), Eternal (yellow), Strategist (blue), Scientist (orange) and Drone (red), who exterminate the older models. Amy meanwhile thinks of a way to stop the beam, and with the help of Bracewell, modifies some spitfires so they can be flown in space and destroy the beam. The Doctor decides to leave the Daleks in order to save Earth, but not before they announce that Bracewell is in fact a bomb. The Doctor has to convince him that he is in fact human at heart to stop the bomb going off, with Amy's help.

 

This is definitely quite a mixed episode for me. Churchill makes for excellent viewing and Bracewell is very likeable too, but the main problem lies with the new Dalek models. The garish bright colours were a TERRIBLE decision, they don't look scary in the slightest and they did absolutely nothing threatening in the end, it was almost a waste of time to include them at all. The spitfires in space idea feels stupid too really. I think if this were a two-parter they may have been able to add more of a story for the Daleks but ultimately they didn't have time. Bonus points for Daleks serving tea though.

The spitfires thing was riiidiculous. Shoulda been a 2 parter.

I'd have liked the coloured Daleks if they stuck with what I saw was the original idea of making the different colours different Dalek classes which would all be treated differently in the show and have differing attitudes and responses in how they approach Dalek modus operandi #1 - exterminate. Like, the red daleks are the literal redshirts, the orange scientists would be either totally insane in that they make up Reality Bomb ideas or be the one Dalek willing to listen to reason and then one of the others is an 'Eternal' class, whatever that means. Like, variety, if we must endure screeching Dalek voices again. That never came across in this episode which was part of the problem, it just seemed like garish Daleks for no reason - although they could have definitely chosen better palette choices to represent these classes.

 

Churchill was great, as was what we saw of the underground war cabinet but yes, not the best episode.

 

Oh and Jenny dying briefly during The Name Of The Doctor had me gripped because of the creepy way she died and the fact that I was always looking forward to her appearances on the show, she was a cute necessary human foil for the alien Vastra and Strax.

Yeah I agree the great bright colours were such a missfire :/

A lot of dislike for Capaldi as a Doctor judging by this thread alone, and I can't help but blame it almost entirely on the writing. Peter Capaldi is a brilliant actor and would have potentially been an amazing Doctor (Which he still could be by the looks of Series 10 so far, shame its a bit late considering he's leaving after this one). Even Clara, who is my least favourite companion to date, could have been utilised so much better than she was had the writing not been atrocious. Anyway, enough complaining. As with pretty much every Doctor Who fan ever, my favourite Doctor from the revived series was David Tennant. Aside from the series with Rose (I'm probably alone in saying this but I just don't like her as a companion) almost every episode was great. Donna was amazing as a companion also and I would highly recommend Series 4 to anyone new to the show.

 

 

Something that hasn't been said here yet for whatever reason, my top 5 monsters/villains/aliens introduced in revived series:

 

Weeping Angels >> Ood >> Vashta Nerada >> The Silence >> Adipose/The Flood

 

Great ranking by the way, I'll be keeping tabs!

Edited April 27, 20178 yr by Dexton

The superhero Christmas one was awful. Poor supporting characters and pretty weak storyline. Really disappointing after a whole year off to come back with that :/

 

I enjoyed the setting of Victory of the Daleks but it fell really flat once the coloured Daleks arrived. I wasn't a huge fan of a spitfire going into space either!

http://www.doctorwhoreviews.altervista.org/2010-14_files/A%20Christmas%20Carol%20(10).jpg

 

86 A Christmas Carol

2010 Christmas Special

Doctor: Eleventh

Companion: Amy Pond, Rory Williams

 

Moffat's first Christmas special saw the Doctor meet a man called Kazran Sardick. He is summoned by Amy and Rory from their honeymoon on a spaceship, which loses control passing through the electric clouds of a planet. The Doctor realises that Kazran controls the atmosphere but refuses to listen to him, so takes inspiration from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and visits Kazran in the past, as a young boy. They are attacked by a shark that swims in the atmosphere, and swallows the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The Doctor recovers part of the sonic but the shark is injured. Young Kazran offers a solution to help the shark, taking the Doctor to his father's cryogenic freezing facility, where humans are stored as security for loans. A girl named Abigail is released, and she sings to the shark to soothe it, while the Doctor uses her cryo-unit to take the shark back to the atmosphere. Kazran promises Abigail that they will see her every year on Christmas Eve, and indeed they do - the Doctor takes them both on a trip every year, and when he's in his late teenage years, Kazran falls in love with Abigail. However, after Abigail whispers something to Kazran, he requests that they stop, and ultimately old Kazran still refuses to help after this. Amy visits Kazran as a hologram, showing him how many people he will be allowing to die, as the "present" aspect. The Doctor then tells Kazran about his future - Abigail had an incurable disease when she was frozen, with only one day to live. The Doctor has brought young Kazran with him, and this makes old Kazran realise how much he has become like his father. He then agrees to save the ship, but the controls do not work and they unfreeze Abigail once again, getting her to sing into half of the sonic screwdriver, resonating with the other half inside the shark which can disrupt the atmosphere and save the ship.

 

I quite liked how they took inspiration from Charles Dickens in this episode, it allows for a different type of Christmas special compared to the ones we were used to from RTD. My issue with this is that it feels like it loses itself along the way and ultimately drags a little bit, certainly on first watch. It's grown on me with repeated watches though I must say, it's a heart-warming tale, and much like a lot of the Moffat Christmas specials, it's enjoyable as a one-off story.

Oh, I liked that Catherine Jenkins one!!

 

Jjeesus wept at all these elaborate promo shots for individual episodes though -what a time suck!!

http://images.amcnetworks.com/bbcamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/intothedalek1.jpg

 

85 Into the Dalek

Series 8, Episode 2

Doctor: Twelfth

Companion: Clara Oswald

Also starring: Danny Pink

 

The second Capaldi episode saw the Doctor save fighter Journey Blue from her shuttle, which was being attacked by Daleks, and return her to the command ship. Journey asks the Doctor to help assist their patient - a Dalek, but not any Dalek, one that actually detests its own race rather than every other race. He picks up Clara from school, asking for her help. Alongside Journey and two soldiers, they get miniaturised and inserted into the Dalek, nicknamed Rusty by the Doctor, via the eystalk. One of the soldiers is incinerated by the antibodies inside the Dalek, and the Doctor uses this to direct them to the Dalek's waste centre. Rusty speaks to the Doctor about witnessing the creation of a star, and he uses the sonic screwdriver to seal the crack causing these thoughts, and Rusty reverts to its usual way of thinking, attacking the base and calling for reinforcements from the main Dalek ship. The Doctor enlists Clara's help to reawaken Rusty's memory of the star's creation, so she opens its cortex vault and presses at memories until the right one hits the spot, while the Doctor links Rusty with his consciousness and shows him the beauty of the universe. Rusty sees the Doctor's deep hatred for the Daleks, and exterminates the reinforcements it called for, becoming "good" again. Once the Doctor, Clara and Journey are out of Rusty, it declares that he is not a good Dalek, the Doctor is.

 

This is another one where I admire the show for trying something new, particularly with the Daleks when they can feel quite tired in some episodes. I remember the concept of this leaked a while before it aired and I thought it was a dreadful idea, but it was pulled off much better than I thought. Having said that, it's not perfect, and I find it stretches the imagination VERY far with the perfectly sized corridors in the Dalek :kink: it was enjoyable for sure though, and I like how the idea of a "good Dalek" was questioned - it's still a killing machine, just aiming its firepower in a different direction.

Into The Dalek and the Mysterio special I really enjoyed.

 

I really liked Into the Dalek - the part that stood out for me was when one of the soldiers chose to die to give the others a chance of surviving, I really liked that.

The Curse of the Black Spot really is a poor episode, especially with that major continuity error of the crewmate disappearing as well as the seen it before ending (Rory dyung was just :')). The Return of Doctor Mysterio is definitely amongst my least favourite episodes, it was SO dull to sit through and the superhero element really didn't work for me.

 

The Name of the Doctor was quite interesting as an episode, I'm not sure it worked as well as it should have done but it was a brave thing to do and of course that ending is brilliant! I really hated A Christmas Carol on first watch but I've REALLY come round to it with later watches and its amongst my favourite Christmas episodes!

 

Into the Dalek was something that I think the writers found and believed was more interesting than it actually was! It was nice to explore something new with ththe Daleks but I don't really care about whats inside it, especially when it is an alien in metal casing. There were some exciting aspects, and I did like the intercut with Missy but the ending of plugging in some stuff fell a bit flat. It also removed the Daleks as an actual threat really haha.

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/doctor-who-tooth-and-claw-queen-knight.jpg

 

84 Tooth and Claw

Series 2, Episode 2

Doctor: Tenth

Companion: Rose Tyler

 

Tooth and Claw sees the Doctor and Rose land in 1879, in the Scottish moors. They meet Queen Victoria, who is travelling by road because a suspected assassination attempt has blocked the train line. The Doctor introduces himself as Dr. James McCrimmon (a nod to the Second Doctor's companion Jamie), also donning a Scottish accent, and Queen Victoria invites them both to join her in her travels. She stops by at the Torchwood Estate for the night, owned by Sir Robert MacLeish, but what she doesn't know is that sinister monks have taken over the building. After Rose tries to investigate, she is captured and thrown into a dark room with many of the other workers. They are being faced by a man in a cage, who, when the full moon is out, turns into a werewolf. The Doctor saves her just in time, and alongside Queen Victoria and Sir Robert, they go on the run. The monks are armed outside the building so they cannot escape, and instead run to the library. By reading books in the library, the Doctor realises that the building has been designed as a trap for the werewolf, and with the use of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, they can kill the alien werewolf lifeform and revert the man back to being human. Sir Robert sacrifices himself so that the others can reach the observatory, and with the help of the telescope and the diamond, the werewolf is trapped in the concentrated light of the moon. The now reverted human begs for the Doctor to increase the concentration and kill him, so he obliges. The Queen finds she has a cut from the werewolf, but insists it's nothing. She later knights the Doctor and Rose as Sir Doctor of TARDIS and Dame Rose of the Powell Estate(!!), before banishing them, and she founds the Torchwood Institute.

 

This is a pretty fun runaround episode, exactly what Doctor Who's all about at its core, and I do enjoy it when I watch. However I can't say I find myself going back to it a great deal. The werewolf is pretty cool and a genuine threat, and Queen Victoria is played excellently by Pauline Collins. The comedy moments are enjoyable too, with the Doctor and Rose's bet to see if the Queen will say "I am not amused", and the suggestion that the Royal Family might be werewolves :') overall, a good enjoyable episode, but there are many many better ones, not much more I can say!

Glad to see Victory of the Daleks out, I really didn't care for their Mini One Series style makeover and entirely agree that the bright colours had the effect of making them look novelty and lose any sense of threat.

 

No major casualties for me so far, I do recall quite liking The Doctor's Wife and 42 even if I can't say that I've thought twice about them since they first aired.

Aww no, Tooth And Claw is one of my highlights of series 2. I think that's where that

(1:15 on) that Series 2 had when the werewolf was set free first came about (to return gloriously in The Satan Pit 2-parter a LOT). And werewolves are some of the essential monsters in folklore for me, very scary and effective when done right and it certainly is here, I'd say this is one of the scariest episodes of DW I can think of.

 

Plus, Queen Victoria was great and all the atmosphere it has with being in the remote Scottish highlands (didn't the werewolves in Being Human also come from Scotland?), the whole history of the werewolf coming to Earth before so well laid out, the decades-long plan of the diamond coming to fruition and it feels like a really well-planned out set piece. And there's the founding of Torchwood and the tongue-in-cheek attempt to suggest the royals are all now lycanthropic. I love it.

 

Actually, there is one thing bad about it, that 'we are not amused' running joke was awful but I'm chalking that up to my dislike of Rose rather than a dislike of the episode.

I have to admit I have never been a massive fan of Tooth and Claw but I never go back to it tbh. I guess the reason being there are better werewolf stories.