Toby Haynes

A mysterious alien travels through space and time with a human girl.

They had a great opportunity to re-invent the series, to make Steven Moffat's Doctor Who as different from Russel T. Davies' Doctor Who as Davies' was different from the classic show. I mean, they've got a completely new cast, new producers and a new head writer. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't ever such a complete, simultaneous change-over in key Doctor Who personnel throughout the classic show's entire history. But at the same time, I don't think a change in Doctor Who personnel has ever had less impact on the feel of the show. I mean, apart from the new Doctor, the occasional nod and wink to William Hartnell, and the lack of obligatory gay characters, nothing's really changed. It's still as great as it ever was, and the quality of individual episodes might be a bit higher than before, on average (but it's hard to say - the Silurian story brings it down quite a bit). Perhaps, with the ridiculous success of the show, they felt obligated to carry on with the old formula. But the beauty of Doctor Who is that it changes; not just The Doctor, but the entire show. So where's my new era?

Concept: A
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: C

Enjoyment: A plus

GPA: 3.4/4… (altro)

A spaceship will crash if a rich old man doesn't become a good person overnight.

Too rushed and overstuffed with timey-wimey cuteness for there to be time for the character stuff (which the story is supposed to be about) to work. Also, there are plot holes and crimes against science (does Moffat even know what the word "frequency" means?). But it is nice that they at least tried to do something more low key in a special for a change. And its faults are made up for with some first rate Doctor Blathering.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: A
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: D

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.6/4… (altro)