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Saturday 24th September 2011 12:19am [Edited]
London
9,490 posts
I know you're all dying to know my verdict on the first four episodes of the new series (by the way, it is a new series, whether they bill it as one or not: there's been a big break, and it's come back. That's what happens when one series ends and a new one starts).
Episode 1: Dire beyond belief. Actually, not beyond belief, given the depths Who has sunk to under Moff, but still pretty unbelievable. Possibly the first - and hopefully last - plotless episode of Who, it owes its existence solely down to the need to tie up the ridiculous loose ends Moff has created, and unfortunately it didn't even do that satisfactorily. -5 out of 10. It would have been -6 but I did enjoy the idea of them saving Hitler.
Episode 2: Bloody hell, it's an episode of Dr Who! Welcome back! Easily Gattis's best episode. Got a bit schmaltzy but the kid wasn't annoying and it was self-contained (thank goodness), without any headache-inducing "where are we now in the story arc" moments. Borrowed heavily from Fear Her - and you might ask why you would want to borrow from one of the worst episodes of New Who's golden era - but it was pretty good overall and felt like the story had room to breathe. 7/10
Episode 3: Best of this or the previous short series. I don't get why people start knocking Karen Gillan on this episode when it's her best acting performance by a mile - I thought she was pretty good by most standards. This was good sci-fi with interesting dilemmas. Notwithstanding that, it didn't always make sense and it wasn't a patch on the best episodes of New Who's golden era. 8/10
Episode 4: Poor, but sadly that feels like a bonus sometimes. The atmosphere was good at times, the director tried hard, but the script and plot weren't there. Did most of it make sense? Not really. Even the key moment, where Amy has to lose faith in the Doctor, doesn't work. Surely she'd realise that he is being smart-alecky and therefore warrants even more faith? It was also annoyingly preachy (most Muslims aren't terrorists? really?) and cliched (an Asian doctor's biggest fear is her Dad saying she isn't studying hard enough). And Walliams phoned in his performance from the make-up room. 4/10 (it gets a bonus point for being the third self-contained non story-arc episode in a row, but loses one for gratuitous use of the weeping angels, whose every additional appearance cheapens the greatness of Blink by approximately 8%).