Sunday 24 November 2013

Day Of The Doctor Semi-Review (SPOILER WARNING)

Well, I'm sure everyone who is even vaguely interested in the science fiction genre has been glued to their screens to see the 50th Anniversary special of Doctor Who. So, for once, I'm going to attempt to review a television episode, rather than anything music related. Now, of course, I'm not a professional critic, so I recommend people who haven't seen the episode and don't want spoilers to come back after you've seen it. This is just my opinion of the episode.

So, let's start with the characters (I'll save the story for later). The return of the Zygons after their only onscreen appearance in "Terror of the Zygons" (there is some stuff where they have appeared since then, but I'm only running by TV appearances here) was a really cool touch, but I feel that they were somewhat underused in this episode. While they were the driving force of the story, I expected to see them appear more in the story than they did. That said, when they were onscreen, they were enjoyable to watch. I suspect that sales of "Terror of the Zygons" is going to increase pretty quickly, so I'd recommend picking up a copy as soon as possible if you've been debating doing it for a while now (it's been out on DVD since the 30th of September this year). John Hurt's version of the Doctor was a really cool character, falling somewhere between the dark and brooding nature of Eccleston's Doctor and the more light hearted Doctors of the original run (which makes sense, considering he's the Doctor that turned into Eccleston's Doctor. Did mention there was spoilers, didn't I?). The other Doctors (Tenth and Eleventh) were their usual selves, but you can tell that their actors (David Tennant and Matt Smith, respectably) have both upped their games for this episode, delivering some of the best performances I've seen from both of them (which is no small feat for David Tennant: I've held him to be my favourite Doctor, with Christopher Eccleston's probably being my second or third favourite depending on whether you ask about ranking reboot Doctors or all Doctors. My second favourite, by the way, would probably be Peter Davison, but I'm getting off topic...). I was disappointed that the only other Doctor who returned was Tom Baker's Doctor, but I don't know whether you can really count him in this one, as his appearance is mostly restricted to a small part at the end which is ambiguous as to whether he is the Doctor or not. Either way, I was surprised that more of them didn't return, but I guess "Night of the Doctor" (the prequel episode to this one) did make up for that by allowing Paul McGann to finally get an onscreen death, so I can let that slide. I'm aware I'm skimming here, but I'm trying to pick out only highlights and weaknesses, so I'll say that everyone else did a good job, as I didn't have any issues on the acting side of things (which is more impressive when you consider I've had some acting training myself. Might do a video review sometime in the future...I'm getting off topic again).

The story (and I'm not going into detail to minimise spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen the episode yet) was mostly very good, although I do have to question the decision to bring the Zygons in and then underuse them. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, as they didn't stop the story in any way, but it feels like they were more there to keep the minor characters busy as opposed to being a serious threat in their own right. I also think that the absence of a ship for the Zygons to hold their captives was a gross oversight, since, if what I've read is true (I'm going by the book "Sting of the Zygons" here, as I've not seen "Terror of the Zygons"), they need to store their captives on one of their own ships to maintain the illusion. I also have to ask why the Zygons were affected by the memory erasing thing and the Doctors (and Clara, now i think on it...) weren't, but I think that might be nitpicking. What might also be nitpicking is that the negotiations with the humans and Zygon lookalikes would probably end with the Zygons losing control of their disguises or with the Zygon disguised as Osgood revealing itself shortly after negotiations are complete due to her giving the lookalike her inhaler, although I feel that one is a more valid one to bring up when you consider how well such a scene would probably go in real life. The way that The War Doctor integrated with the other two was quite interesting and his being accepted as worthy of the Doctor's name was genuinely quite touching when you remember what he went through during the episode. Aside from my complaints regarding the Zygons, I'd say that the story was solid enough.

The episode as a whole probably had some issues maintaining focus, but I would still say that it's essential viewing if you like Doctor Who. If you don't, this probably won't change your mind.

(A personal note to finish up: after having skipped a decent amount of series 7 (I skipped "Angels of Manhattan" and the three episodes between "Cold War" and "Nightmare In Silver", which is still the most episodes I've skipped in a single series of the show since the reboot happened), I was starting to think that Doctor Who wasn't interesting me any more, but I have to say that this has won me back to the series. I'm slightly disappointed it had to happen after Matt Smith announced his departure from the show, but I'm sure his last appearance (which is going to be the Christmas special) will be great.)

If you think I should do more things like this on the blog, let me know.

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