2 thoughts on “Doctor Who – Series 7 Part 1 Weeping Angels Limited Edition [DVD]”
Blockbuster Doctor Who Doctor Who returns after a while to present us with another half and half season, this time with Christmas as the bridging point. After the excellent and complicated Series 6 with the most prominent story arc in the show’s history, Steven Moffat and co. presents us with a five part series, five blockbusters of Doctor Who giving us things we could only dream of, Insane Daleks,Dinosaurs, a Western and the return of the Weeping Angels. Is this series good? Oh yes, this one is good, epic stories, big characters, a constantly changing title sequence and some real highlights. Let’s begin.Episode 1: Asylum of the Daleks 8/10As you no doubt have seen this episode had a lot if images showing ever Dalek design in Doctor Who history. If you expect this to have any impact on the story, you will be disappointed. There’s about three of four brief shots of the past Daleks and they do barely anything in the story. But that’s really the only major negative. The premise is that the Daleks abduct the Doctor on Skaro and force him and his companions to take out a force field on their planetary asylum so they can finally blow it up after keeping it around for the admiration of their pure hatred. Meanwhile down below, a survivor of a crash, Oswin (Jenna Louise Coleman, the next companion in a surprising cameo), finds out about our intrepid heroes and gives them a helping hand in getting around a mainly dormant asylum. As the Doctor and Amy fight off the Dalek’s new minions (in one of the most disturbing elements in the Dalek arsenal) Rory meets the Daleks who are now waking up and remembering they are scary again. As the Doctor races to get them off and Oswin out, Rory and Amy seem to be in a divorce position and tensions run high as Amy faces a potential end to her humanity. So what’s good about this episode? The Dalek’s return and the Time War design is back in force, meaning they no longer are the plastic mockery subjects of “Victory”. The episode is dark, creepy, menacing, deeply tragic and features many a moment between the Doctor and his long-standing companions, as well as very dark revelations and a great twist ending. Doctor Who is back, and it’s awesome.Episode 2: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship 10/10Could you ask for a better premise? Well, anyway, the Doctor and a gang consisting of a big game hunter, an Egyptian Queen and the Ponds + Rory’s dad arrive on a spaceship heading for Earth to find the crew missing and Dinosaurs as the cargo. This episode is just a joy, a great romp and the first proper adventure story since Series 5 in 2010. We get the best of Britain with Mark Williams as Rory’s dad Brian, David Bradley as our villain and Mitchell and Webb as a pair of robots reminiscent of Douglas Adams’ work. The plot is fairly straightforward, Chibnall is at his finest and this time doesn’t screw up the story like he did in “Hungry Earth” and its a fun, humorous romp with plenty of great CGI dinosaurs with “Primeval” contributing to designs and just generally a fun, memorable albeit silly episode of Doctor Who.Episode 3: A Town Called Mercy 7/10Doctor Who’s first Western since 1965’s “The Gunfighters” and we get a mainly good story with some weaknesses. The scenery and sets are fantastic, the effort made into making this feel genuine is extremely admirable and the fact that the lines of good and evil are blurred work well here. At heart a Western is the story of inner demons of heroes and villains, it’s perfectly handled here as is the human emotion of fear and the desire for justice. Visually it’s great with the Gunslinger cyborg looking awesome and a good back-story for what we have as the plot. So what’s wrong with it? Well the emotions are there but sometimes executed weakly, the power is there just not enough and the ending is something of a fluke in the wrong direction as to if it even makes sense. It’s still not a bad episode and it a good Western blockbuster for all to enjoy.Episode 4: The Power of Three 7.5/10Different from the other four in this series, The Power of Three is a slow invasion of Earth with billions of cubes which over time grow dangerously complacent and familiar to humanity, doing nothing but with a sinister motivation. And then the cubes begin to activate, and then the invasion truly begins. This episode however has the real strength in that it is revolutionary for examining the companions – it’s the first to truly show the strain of the Doctor / home life and does what no other story has done, examined the issue of that strain. The Doctor here has a great scene confessing to Brian about the fate of his companions, albeit vaguely but with enough there. It’s a deep story and the fact is, the Pond’s are special, they have done things with the Doctor no other has done, seen Universe’s end and reboot, had their lives stolen or lived and then come back, the Pond’s are more than most companions in what they’ve done and this episode…
Out of Ten? Eleven! After waiting NINE MONTHS for a new episode of Doctor Who, I was beyond excited for series 7, and I was hoping it would make up for series 6, which was, to me, a letdown (sorry, but I can count the episodes I actually enjoyed from that series on one hand). Well put it this way, just ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ made up for that entire series, so I had a hunch this would be one of the best series yet. Was I correct? No. It IS THE best series yet.ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS – Literally, an Asylum full of Daleks! Kind of let down though by the fact that you don’t see as many classic Daleks as was first made out. On the plus side, JENNA-LOUISE COLEMAN WAS IN IT! How they managed to keep this a secret I don’t know, but after that little taste, I’m really looking forward to JLC taking over at Christmas. Oh, and the Daleks say “DOCTOR WHO?”, so that’s godda be worth something. 9.5/10DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP – A brilliant episode, made even more brilliant by the star guest cast. Mark Williams ‘Mr Weasley’ as Rory’s Dad, Brian, with David Bradley ‘Mr Filch’ as Soloman (and a freakishly accurate William Hartnell look-alike may I add?). Rupert Graves – looks like Lestrade has found his division – as Riddell, and lets not forget David Mitchell and Robert Webb as Doctor Who’s campest EVER robots. And there’s dinosaurs too – they’re on a spaceship! 8/10A TOWN CALLED MERCY – If I HAD to pick a worst episode, I would pick this one, as I found it particularly slow at the beginning, but it really started to pick up round the middle, as the angry, more darker side to the Doctor is explored. There’s a typical western fight at noon, and people die. I like death and darkness in shows like Doctor Who, it shows people that it is not ‘just a kids show’. 7/10THE POWER OF THREE – I was looking forward to this episode most out of the entire series, mainly because it was the least spoiled episode. I really can’t understand why people give it so much stick. I mean, fair enough, the ending was rushed, but it was good as a ‘kind of’ light hearted episode before the dark and depressing finale. 9/10THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN – What can I say? In the words of the Doctor – just YOWZAH! Great story, brilliant music on behalf of Murray Gold, particularly in once scene involving Amy, Rory and a rooftop. A fitting send of for the Ponds, tying up ends all the way back to their first episode, ‘The Eleventh Hour’. 10/10Bravo, Steven Moffat. Just Bravo.
Blockbuster Doctor Who Doctor Who returns after a while to present us with another half and half season, this time with Christmas as the bridging point. After the excellent and complicated Series 6 with the most prominent story arc in the show’s history, Steven Moffat and co. presents us with a five part series, five blockbusters of Doctor Who giving us things we could only dream of, Insane Daleks,Dinosaurs, a Western and the return of the Weeping Angels. Is this series good? Oh yes, this one is good, epic stories, big characters, a constantly changing title sequence and some real highlights. Let’s begin.Episode 1: Asylum of the Daleks 8/10As you no doubt have seen this episode had a lot if images showing ever Dalek design in Doctor Who history. If you expect this to have any impact on the story, you will be disappointed. There’s about three of four brief shots of the past Daleks and they do barely anything in the story. But that’s really the only major negative. The premise is that the Daleks abduct the Doctor on Skaro and force him and his companions to take out a force field on their planetary asylum so they can finally blow it up after keeping it around for the admiration of their pure hatred. Meanwhile down below, a survivor of a crash, Oswin (Jenna Louise Coleman, the next companion in a surprising cameo), finds out about our intrepid heroes and gives them a helping hand in getting around a mainly dormant asylum. As the Doctor and Amy fight off the Dalek’s new minions (in one of the most disturbing elements in the Dalek arsenal) Rory meets the Daleks who are now waking up and remembering they are scary again. As the Doctor races to get them off and Oswin out, Rory and Amy seem to be in a divorce position and tensions run high as Amy faces a potential end to her humanity. So what’s good about this episode? The Dalek’s return and the Time War design is back in force, meaning they no longer are the plastic mockery subjects of “Victory”. The episode is dark, creepy, menacing, deeply tragic and features many a moment between the Doctor and his long-standing companions, as well as very dark revelations and a great twist ending. Doctor Who is back, and it’s awesome.Episode 2: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship 10/10Could you ask for a better premise? Well, anyway, the Doctor and a gang consisting of a big game hunter, an Egyptian Queen and the Ponds + Rory’s dad arrive on a spaceship heading for Earth to find the crew missing and Dinosaurs as the cargo. This episode is just a joy, a great romp and the first proper adventure story since Series 5 in 2010. We get the best of Britain with Mark Williams as Rory’s dad Brian, David Bradley as our villain and Mitchell and Webb as a pair of robots reminiscent of Douglas Adams’ work. The plot is fairly straightforward, Chibnall is at his finest and this time doesn’t screw up the story like he did in “Hungry Earth” and its a fun, humorous romp with plenty of great CGI dinosaurs with “Primeval” contributing to designs and just generally a fun, memorable albeit silly episode of Doctor Who.Episode 3: A Town Called Mercy 7/10Doctor Who’s first Western since 1965’s “The Gunfighters” and we get a mainly good story with some weaknesses. The scenery and sets are fantastic, the effort made into making this feel genuine is extremely admirable and the fact that the lines of good and evil are blurred work well here. At heart a Western is the story of inner demons of heroes and villains, it’s perfectly handled here as is the human emotion of fear and the desire for justice. Visually it’s great with the Gunslinger cyborg looking awesome and a good back-story for what we have as the plot. So what’s wrong with it? Well the emotions are there but sometimes executed weakly, the power is there just not enough and the ending is something of a fluke in the wrong direction as to if it even makes sense. It’s still not a bad episode and it a good Western blockbuster for all to enjoy.Episode 4: The Power of Three 7.5/10Different from the other four in this series, The Power of Three is a slow invasion of Earth with billions of cubes which over time grow dangerously complacent and familiar to humanity, doing nothing but with a sinister motivation. And then the cubes begin to activate, and then the invasion truly begins. This episode however has the real strength in that it is revolutionary for examining the companions – it’s the first to truly show the strain of the Doctor / home life and does what no other story has done, examined the issue of that strain. The Doctor here has a great scene confessing to Brian about the fate of his companions, albeit vaguely but with enough there. It’s a deep story and the fact is, the Pond’s are special, they have done things with the Doctor no other has done, seen Universe’s end and reboot, had their lives stolen or lived and then come back, the Pond’s are more than most companions in what they’ve done and this episode…
Out of Ten? Eleven! After waiting NINE MONTHS for a new episode of Doctor Who, I was beyond excited for series 7, and I was hoping it would make up for series 6, which was, to me, a letdown (sorry, but I can count the episodes I actually enjoyed from that series on one hand). Well put it this way, just ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ made up for that entire series, so I had a hunch this would be one of the best series yet. Was I correct? No. It IS THE best series yet.ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS – Literally, an Asylum full of Daleks! Kind of let down though by the fact that you don’t see as many classic Daleks as was first made out. On the plus side, JENNA-LOUISE COLEMAN WAS IN IT! How they managed to keep this a secret I don’t know, but after that little taste, I’m really looking forward to JLC taking over at Christmas. Oh, and the Daleks say “DOCTOR WHO?”, so that’s godda be worth something. 9.5/10DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP – A brilliant episode, made even more brilliant by the star guest cast. Mark Williams ‘Mr Weasley’ as Rory’s Dad, Brian, with David Bradley ‘Mr Filch’ as Soloman (and a freakishly accurate William Hartnell look-alike may I add?). Rupert Graves – looks like Lestrade has found his division – as Riddell, and lets not forget David Mitchell and Robert Webb as Doctor Who’s campest EVER robots. And there’s dinosaurs too – they’re on a spaceship! 8/10A TOWN CALLED MERCY – If I HAD to pick a worst episode, I would pick this one, as I found it particularly slow at the beginning, but it really started to pick up round the middle, as the angry, more darker side to the Doctor is explored. There’s a typical western fight at noon, and people die. I like death and darkness in shows like Doctor Who, it shows people that it is not ‘just a kids show’. 7/10THE POWER OF THREE – I was looking forward to this episode most out of the entire series, mainly because it was the least spoiled episode. I really can’t understand why people give it so much stick. I mean, fair enough, the ending was rushed, but it was good as a ‘kind of’ light hearted episode before the dark and depressing finale. 9/10THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN – What can I say? In the words of the Doctor – just YOWZAH! Great story, brilliant music on behalf of Murray Gold, particularly in once scene involving Amy, Rory and a rooftop. A fitting send of for the Ponds, tying up ends all the way back to their first episode, ‘The Eleventh Hour’. 10/10Bravo, Steven Moffat. Just Bravo.