Series 6 - Matt Smith - The Girl Who Waited

The Girl who waited is probably one of Rory’s stronger episodes and Arthur Darvill plays the unlikely hero perfectly. Following his performances in ‘The Rebel Flesh’, ‘The Almost People’ and ‘A Good Man Goes to War’ Rory has shed his status as ‘Companion’s Boyfriend’ and has become a bonafide companion in his own right. He is a strong willed compassionate and caring character who shares the Doctor’s enthusiasm for preserving life but with much less passion for adventure and a much less prominent lust for danger and excitement. Rory is everyone’s favourite reluctant adventurer.

Arthur’s portrayal of the grief that comes from knowing that you are failing to save the woman you love and the way he deals with being confronted with the very woman he is failing to save is beautifully performed with just the right balance of despair, hope and frustration. Rory confronts the Doctor’s decision to trick the older Amy in order to save the younger Amy in a way that only Rory can. He gets right to the point of it, expressing the emotions that every audience member falls seeing the unfairness of Amy’s predicament and of the decision that the Doctor and Rory are forced to make. Yet Rory understands why the Doctor had to do what he did which is what makes him stand out so much as a companion. He is prepared to tell the Doctor how he feels but he is also prepared to do whatever it takes to keep Amy safe. I can’t think of many romances more beautiful than that of The Last Centurion and The Girl Who Waited.

Series 6 - Matt Smith - The God Complex

The God Complex finds Amy, Rory and the Doctor trapped in a strange alien craft that has disguised itself as a seedy looking Earth hotel where they come across a group of people who have been wandering around the halls for some time. They quickly realise that behind each door, in every room of the hotel is a horrifying nightmare and that somewhere in the hotel is a nightmare that belongs to each of them personally. 

Season 7 - Tom Baker - The City of Death

City of Death was the first episode of the Doctor Who to ever be partially filmed on location outside of the UK and the BBC wasted no time in showing us the sights of Paris as the Doctor saw them on his trip with Romana. Much of the episode consists of scenes of them running through the streets of France, the Doctor’s scarf flapping in the wind and Romana nearly losing her hat.

The Doctor and his companion visit the Louvre where they discover that someone is out to steal the Mona Lisa and begin a hunt for an alien who is disguised as a rich baron named Scarlioni who wants to use the money he can get from the painting to fund his experiments in Time Travel. Scarlioni is actually Scaroth the last of the Jagaroth who was stranded on Earth and fragmented through its time line when his space ship explodes. 

My Toy Collection - By Jack

Even before I became a Doctor Who Fan I have always been a collector. Whether it is Star Wars or vinyl records or Doctor Who I have had a collector in me from a young age. So it was inevitable that when I became a Doctor Who fan I would no doubt want to collect the toys and merchandise from this iconic series. I started buying old annuals at boot fairs, mainly from the Tom Baker and Peter Davidson era, and I found a great Dalek annual from the 60s. I found a complete Tom Baker doll from the Denys Fisher toy line and even began to collect the modern toys as well.

30 days and still going strong! ~ By Kristy

36 days in and I can no longer say with any degree of confidence who my favourite Doctor is. Even though sometimes I come in from work and all I want to do is go to bed and sleep, the prospect of a brand new episode of Doctor Who is exciting enough to keep me out of my PJs just that little bit longer.

I really see this as a fantastic opportunity and have really enjoyed getting to know the different Doctors, their different companions and their wonderful adventures. Everything from the silliness of Sylvester McCoy to the beautiful class that is Tom Baker’s voice and the classic nature of William Hartnell’s performance has been really inspiring and I find myself thinking about Doctor Who even whilst at work.

One month on - By Jack

When I mentioned the idea for this blog to Kristy over the Christmas holidays I didn't think we would really end up doing it but Kristy was really up for it and starting building the blog, this got me very excited just wondering if we could really do it. Now a entire month has passed since we decided to take on Doctor Who for an entire year and we have successfully consumed at least one episode a day and are reviewing as we go.

It sounded easy to begin with, any Doctor Who fan would think watching an episode every day would be a piece of cake. To begin with we started by watching entire stories from the classic seasons every night, however we soon began to realise that such a pace would be impossible to keep up as many of these stories are 6 or 8 sections long. We can only watch episodes in the evening so watching a 3 hour episode meant that we simply weren’t having time to keep up with the reviews. Since this minor hiccup we have only been watching one segement of each serial a night and this is working out much better.  It has served to keep the episodes much fresher and gave us more time to think about the episodes as we consumed them.

Series 3 - David Tennant - 'Human Nature' and 'The Family of Blood'

Human Nature is very much Martha’s story. It tells the tale of her infatuation with the Doctor and shows the lengths she would go to in order to ensure his safety, but most of all this episode shows the lengths the Doctor is prepared to go to in order to preserve his own life and avoid his body falling into the wrong hands.

The Family of Blood are a family of space scavengers who desperately need the life force of a Time Lord in order to sustain their own lives, they pursue the Doctor so relentlessly that he is forced to contain his Time Lord self in a fob watch to push the Family off of his scent. The fact that the Family can absorb the very essence of a life is pretty devilish as far as villains go and their army of animated scarecrows was pretty creepy to behold.

Season 22 - Patrick Troughton and Colin Baker - 'The Two Doctors'

The Two Doctors saw the return of Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines to reprise their roles as the second Doctor and his companion Jamie McCrimmon alongside Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown. In this episode the Sixth Doctor has a vision of his previous self being put to death at the hands of a Sontaran so Peri and her Doctor home in on Patrick Troughton’s whereabouts and race to save his life? 

The Episode is partially based in a very 80s Neon and chrome space station and partially based in a grand manor house estate in Spain where Dastari and Chessene (a genetically enhanced Androgum) are conducting time experiments with the help of the Sontarans which are threatening the very fabric of time itself. It’s always fun to see a Doctor interact with himself and this is the third time that Patrick Troughton returned to his role for a one off episode so it must have been very exciting for the audience at the time who had seen him interact with all of the other Doctors in turn. However there isn’t actually a lot of interaction between the Two Doctors in this episode at all something I was really quite disappointed about. 

Season 22 - Colin Baker - Attack of the Cybermen

We chose 'Attack of the Cybermen' for Day 20 as we had not seen an episode with Colin Baker and as the first serial from Season 22 it seemed a good place to start with this Doctor. Unfortunately we did find ourselves a little disappointed with the episode which didn’t seem to flow particularly well and facets of the story were quite farcical.

Colin Baker’s Doctor is, if this is possible, almost more eccentric than many of the other incarnations and has an arrogance about him that actually makes him quite abrasive. The episode has a very slapstick feel to it which is partly due to the physical nature of Colin Baker’s portrayal and partly due to the very 80s feel to the storyline.

Peri, as ever, is partially clothed and a little whiney through most of the episode and is almost killed on several occasions but even though the character of Peri doesn’t really hold up amazingly well alongside other classic companions such as Sarah Jane and Jo Grant her sparring with the sixth Doctor brings a comedy element to Season 22 and provides a voice for the audience giving us a much appreciated reprieve from the Doctor’s showing off.

Though the story line wasn’t amazing and the relationship between this newly regenerated Doctor and his companion Peri is a little tense, it was great to see a different take on the Cybermen and was interesting, if comical, to see just what could happen if the chameleon circuit in the Tardis was working.  

Unfortunately we couldn’t find it in our hearts to award this episode more than a 2/5, hopefully we have a little more luck with some of Colin Baker’s other episodes. 

Peter Capaldi and Clara Oswald - Cross Stitch Pattern - SnowFallonSea

I would like to introduce you to the newest addition to my cross stitch pattern collection, soon to be available from my Etsy shop 'SnowFallonSea'.

The newest Doctor and his companion Clara :)

Series 2 - David Tennant - Love and Monsters

Love and Monsters is a very interesting and exciting episode from the second series since the 2005 reboot. The most interesting thing about this episode is simply that it doesn’t feature the Doctor much at all. Though there have been a few episodes which have followed a similar formula in subsequent series, this is the first time we see a storyline play out like this one. Rather than a story centring around the Doctor, Rose and their adventures this episode follows the  lives of a group of people who have all have been touched by the Doctor in some way, exploring the effect he can have on the people around him whether good or bad. 

Series 5 - Matt Smith - The Beast Below

The Beast Below is the second episode of Series 5 of Doctor Who after the 2005 reboot with Matt Smith as the Doctor and Karen Gillan gracing our screens as his companion Amy Pond. Though this was Smith’s second episode as the Doctor I think it is the episode where you really got to know the Doctor he would turn out to be. The first episode of the series showed off the Doctor’s playful gleeful side, his determination and the power of his mind, this second episode shows his compassion and understanding but most of all his anger. 

The Beast Below, both beautiful and heart-breaking at the same time, finds the Doctor and Amy exploring the space ship that houses the entire population of the United Kingdom as it stood the day they fled the earth and its burning sun. 

Season 21 - Peter Davison - Resurrection of the Daleks

Episodes about Davros and the Daleks are always fun to watch and, with so much historical knowledge to draw from, they’re usually relatively easy to review. However this story, I think is an exception to this rule. This was our first encounter with the 5^th Doctor, Peter Davison and we had high hopes as it boasts being the only episode in which Peter Davison meets his oldest enemies as well as the first ever Doctor Who episode that was broadcast in 45 minute segments rather than the traditional 25.

This episode notoriously garners mixed opinions amongst fans and in hindsight we accept that this probably was not the best episode to introduce us to the Peter Davison’s Doctor. In all honesty the Doctor didn’t really seem that instrumental to the storyline as he had very little dialogue, not a great deal of screen time and the Daleks eventual downfall comes and the hands of Davros himself rather than the Doctor. However what time the Doctor does spend on screen is quite notable, if only because of how far his character has come from the kindly old gentleman that William Hartnell introduced us to.

Series 1 - Christopher Eccleston - Dalek by Kristy

I was really excited when we chose ‘Dalek’ as the first modern Doctor Who that we would review as it is an episode that is very close to my heart, not only was it the first episode I saw with Christopher Eccleston but it was also my favourite episode from his series and my very first episode with the Daleks. 

There are many things that are simply irresistible about this episode but the biggest thing for me is seeing just how much damage the time war really did to the Doctor. Christopher Eccleston was a brilliant choice to bring the Doctor to life again, he is a fantastic actor and he really showed it in this story when he unleashed his anguish and anger on the imprisoned Dalek. 

Day 12 - Resurrection of the Daleks

With Sherlock on the TV this evening we decided to watch a slightly shorter classic episode. This evening we watched our first Peter Davison episode 'Resurrection of the Daleks' from season 21 of Doctor Who.

Reviews of 'Dalek' and 'Resurrection of the Daleks' to follow shortly :)

Day 9 - Big Finish Productions Audio Play - Shada (BBCi Animation)

Day 9 of our year long challenge and we settled down to the first episode of the audio play 'Shada' set to animation in 2003 for BBCi. Shada was originally an episode written by Douglas Adams which was never finished due to strikes at the BBC and so remained unaired. In 1992 the unfinished material was released with links by Tom Baker however it wasn't until 2003 when Big Finish Productions created an animated audio play of the storyline that the episode was ever aired in its entirety. This audio episode features Paul McGann as the eighth doctor alongside Romana II and K-9.

Unfortunately work commitments have us a little behind on the reviews but reviews for 'The Time Warrior', 'The Space Museum' and for 'Shada' the animated audio production will follow very soon along with an interview with Jeremy Bulloch.

Thank you for reading :)

Season 25 - Sylvester McCoy - Remembrance of the Daleks

For Day 3 of our year with the Doctor we decided to watch an episode that would be a new experience for both of us, with this in mind we decided to watch the iconic Sylvester McCoy episode ‘The Remembrance of the Daleks’. This episode which was first aired in October 1988 marked the beginning of the 25^th Season of Doctor Who, a remarkable feat. As before the episode aired as 4 segments of 25 minute duration over 4 consecutive weeks and was the last appearance of Davros and the Daleks on television until the show’s revamp in 2005.

One of the great things about this episode (and there are many great things) is the number of little references to Doctor Who and its origins. This episode is set in 1963 around the time that the first Doctor Who was filmed and aired, in the very location that the first episode was set.  We return to Coal Hill School which Susan attended and to the junkyard at 76 Totter’s Lane where the Doctor first parked his Tardis. 

Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor and his assistant Ace have been drawn to 1963 in the course of the Doctor’s quest to secure the hand of Omega. The hand of Omega is a tool designed by a Legendary Time Lord and stellar engineer who created it as a way of manipulating stars to allow the Gallifreyans to time travel. During his research Omega was caught in a supernova caused by his own tool and was sucked into a black hole where he was trapped for the remainder of his life.

Day 2 - 'The Three Doctors'

For this evening's Doctor Who viewing Jack and I sat down to watch the the first two 25 minute episodes of the 1972 Doctor who episode 'The Three Doctors'. This was the first ever episode of 'Doctor Who' which saw and old Doctor coming back to meet with a current Doctor. This was also the episode which marked the Tenth anniversary of the Doctor on our television. The first part of this episode aired on 30th December 1972 and ran for 4 weeks.

Review to follow .... :)

The Doctor and Jack

My first introduction to Doctor Who came whilst I was channel hopping; it was early 2007 and I was looking for something to watch when I came across a re-run of ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ from Series 2, One of David Tennant’s early episodes. Initially I just left it on for a bit of background noise but found that it really held my interest, it was clever, funny and I didn’t stop thinking about it for hours after. The next morning I found myself still thinking about it while out at a Car Boot Sale in my local area, so when I spotted a Doctor Who DVD for sale I didn’t hesitate before picking it up. The disc I bought was Series 2 Volume 4, usually I am not the type of person to throw myself into a series from somewhere around the middle but I was hooked and the impulse was too strong. A few days later, having devoured my new episodes, I went out and bought Series 1 and 2 and watched every episode, one after the other.