Series 6

Ok, series 5 is over, it is now time for series 6, myself and the staff here at TARDISmania will bring you up to date information for the upcoming series.Here is what we know about the series so far:

Confirmed cast:

Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith

Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
River Song - Alex Kingston
Eric - Nick Malinowski
Older Benjamin - Steve North
TBA - Michael Gambon
TBA - Katherine Jenkins
TBA - Danny Horn
TBA - Laura Rogers
 
Episodes:
 
Number:                  Title:                             Writer:                  
Special                                                           Steven Moffat          
1                                                                    Steven Moffat
2
3                       The House of Nothing            Neil Gaiman            
4 (part 1)                                      
5 (part 2)
6
7
8 (part 1)                                                         Matthew Graham
9 (part 2)                                                         Matthew Graham
10
11                    Century House                         Tom MacRae            
12 (part 1)                                                       Steven Moffat           
13 (part 2)                                                       Steven Moffat            
 
That's all so far, lets hope more info will come out soon. Can't wait to see who River Song actually is!

Series 4 Episode 1: Partners in Crime

Partners in crime was quite a good start to the last series for David Tennant, although the beginning was a bit boring with us not knowning what the Doctor was doing, but it worked out nonoftheless It's hard to imagine a TV event more hotly anticipated in our house than the start of a new series of Doctor Who. It's one of the few things that pulls us all together to watch in the traditional "family viewing" scenario of days gone by. Along with that anticipation, and excitement built to melting point by weeks of trailers and press clips, not to mention editors lucky enough to be invited to previews (hmph!), there's always a small frisson of fear. Have RTD and his experienced production team pulled it off again? What will Donna be like? Is there anything to DISlike about the show? Well yes, now that you come to mention it. There was ONE thing...
And I might as well get it out of the way first, because it was pretty much the ONLY thing I didn't like about last night's opener. The new theme tune. I mean, it's "OK" - and it's true that I've rarely liked changes to the theme tune on first hearing. I may grow to like it more in the coming weeks, but I don't think I'll ever not miss the stirring, loud, insistent brass note that has now been taken out in favour of a bit more synthetic drumming.
I wrote earlier that there's always a slight worry about whether Doctor Who can ever be as good as your expectations for it, but in the past this has rarely if ever been a problem in those episodes written by RTD (and as Anna has already pointed out, he's doing a lot more of the writing this time round). Davies has an innate grasp of humour, indeed of entertainment in general. He knows how to keep the pace up, how to amuse, when to turn the dramatic screws. His stuff just works. The first few minutes, where the Doctor and Donna were both on the trail of Adipose Industries but kept missing each other by millimetres or milliseconds was very cleverly done, but also very cleverly not OVERdone, as so much farce can be. A little goes a long way and once again Davies understands that implicitly.
When they eventually did meet, having this take place across the scene of the action was a masterstroke. Those of you who watched Doctor Who Confidential will know that Catherine Tate came up with her mime in the absence of any advice or direction - she winged it, basically - which I thought was pretty impressive.
Finally, the unexpected (and closely guarded) appearance of Rose at the end of last night's episode had us all scratching our heads. How has she managed to return from exile in an alternate universe? The answer was hinted at as she turned and walked away into nothingness. Has Rose discovered a gateway, or a gating technology, between the universes? We know we'll find out sometime during this series - during which two other old companions will rejoin the TARDIS too.
So all in all a cracking start to the 2008 series. If this episode has set the bar for the next 12 then we're in for some quality television and - is it too early to suggest? - possibly the best Doctor Who series ever.

Rating: 10/10

Series 3 Episode 11/12/13: Utopia/ The Sound of Drums/ Last of the Time Lords

This finale is the weakest entry in Russell Davies' final three-part story arc that serves as the finale of the third season of Doctor Who. However, there's still some damn fine stuff here, with plenty of great developments that will likely play a part in episodes next season (and perhaps beyond). As finales go, it's perhaps something of a let down, but by no means a bad way to go out.
Perhaps the biggest misstep in this episode is having The Doctor spend much of it as a computer-generated 900-year-old version of himself. The final episode of Doctor Who should really have as much Doctor as possible, and that means not swapping David Tennant out for an odd Gollum-like CGI beastie.
There's also the questionable "I believe in fairies!" moment where the Doctor somehow taps into the psychic energy of the entire human race and magically transforms back into his young and healthy form. This is logically muddy and seems quite out of place in the traditionally more rational and (at least nominally) scientific explanations found in the series. There's also some fairly weak Messianic allusions being drawn that also don't fit well with the character. Though, to be fair, the Doctor does seem happy that humanity has mostly forgotten him when it's all over.
 
The episode also has some very nice codas, including a great moment between Martha and The Doctor which serves as a terrific counterpoint to Rose's farewell. We haven't seen the last of Martha, but it's important for her character to separate herself from The Doctor at this time. It leaves The Doctor as he often is, totally alone. At least until the final moments where the next Christmas Special is set up…
 
Rating: 8/10

Series 3 Episode 10: Blink

Blink was a truely brilliant episode, it was perfect,  Doctor Who has told a number of supremely clever time travel stories over the years. However, even a series with as many high points as this, "Blink" stands out as one of its finer moments. This episode comes from the mind of Steven Moffat, who brought us last season's also brilliant "The Girl in the Fire Place." It's similar to last season's "Love and Monsters," an episode that had very little of The Doctor and Rose. Here we don't even see Martha and The Doctor except on a DVD until late in the episode.
Filling in as the star of the episode is Carey Mulligan as "Sally Sparrow," a photographer interested in an old house. She begins receiving messages from The Doctor, who is trapped in 1969. They arrive in a variety of ways - from a rock being throw at her, writing on old walls, and in "easter eggs" on DVDs. When people start going missing around her, she starts getting messages from them as well. If all of this sounds involved, it is, but it's also told in an incredibly elegant way, never leaving you confused as to how whatever happened just happened. The logic might be strained, but the Doctor nips the doubt in the bud with a humorous explanation of "timey-wimey" things.
Normatively this episode is ingenious, investing us in a character we've never met, but suddenly feel has been around a lot longer. She loses an old friend and has the potential of a new boyfriend snatched from her in mere moments. All the while, the episode is making us question the presence of statues - and whether that slight movement we thought we detected was real after all. It's this concept that makes this episode's enemy, "the weeping angels," a stroke of real genius.

Rating: 1500/10

Series 3 Episode 8/9: Human Nature/ The Family of Blood

I loved every moment in this episode, a mysterious man named John Smith who is a school teacher in 1913.Last week, I stated that depending on how the second half of the “Human Nature/Family of Blood” storyline turned out, that “Doctor Who” could have another instant classic story on its hands.
Well, I’m here to tell you–the new series has another instant classic on its hands.“The Family of Blood” is a solid, entertaining and worthy second-half to “Human Nature.” It’s a story that not only delivers on the promise of part one, but it clears the high bar set by a mile. This is classic “Doctor Who” in every sense of the word. The thing is–it doesn’t follow the usual pattern of a classic “Doctor Who” story. At it’s core, this story is about exploring exactly who is the Doctor. It’s a story about trying to answer the central question of the show–”Who is the Doctor?” And in the course of these 90 minutes, we learn a lot about the Doctor.

Simply put, this is “Doctor Who” at its absolute best. It’s a story that’s entertaining, edge of your seat and full of authentic emotion. It examines the fundamental nature of who the Doctor is and its heart-breaking to see that by reverting from Smith to the Doctor, he will save the world but condemn himself to a life of loneliness. I can see threads of what Davies is trying to do this season for a theme–the consequences of being the last of his kind in the universe and the hope there may be another Time Lord out there. It’s a lot more subtle than the Saxon references and it may be the best on-going thread the new series has done. (Of course, my thought on that could change based on the next few episodes…but I have faith in the production team).


Rating: 10/10

Series 3 Episode 7: 42

Terrible episode, I hated every minute of it, for most of it didn't make sense, and the episode is very bland. Stories in which the events that happen on-screen take the same amount of time as the audience spends invested in the film or television program are nothing new. It happened in the classic “High Noon” (the original, not any of the substandard remakes) and viewers can see it unfolding each week on the hit series “24.”
But to have a story unfold in “real time” is something new and different for “Doctor Who” and something that couldn’t have effectively happened in the original series. Building to a cliffhanger every 24 or so minutes wouldn’t have allowed the “real time” concept to work quite as effectively as it does here.
So, it’s interesting that even though the central hook of “42″ is something that could only happen on the new series, the episode itself would be firmly grounded in the conventions of the classic series. And that this hybrid of new and old would make for one of the most effective and entertaining stories of series three and David Tennant’s run as the Doctor.

So overall, the worse episode ever written.

Rating: 2/10

Series 3 Episode 6: The Lazarus Experiment

At the end of the day, the driving force behind the entire history of Doctor Who is the "hide behind the couch" monster that The Doctor and his companions face. Aliens, mutants, robots, and the occasional "might actually be The Devil" beasties have scarred many a young fan of the series. This episode does not have aims much loftier than "give the Doctor and Martha a big bad monster to face" - and to that end it does its job quite well.
The enemy, in the form of an arachnid (didn't we just see one of these recently?) mutant mad scientist named Dr. Lazarus, is one of the better critters cooked up in this reinvention of the series. While the effects are still not quite up to par with something you'd see on American television, they are quite effective. To be fair, I can't think of a single show on American television that tries to pull off anything as elaborate or as outlandish as the monsters, aliens and environments you see in Doctor Who on a regular basis.
 
Martha once again proves she's willing to throw herself into the action, refusing to abandon The Doctor when he's alone with Lazarus. For the final battle, her sister joins in and the two of them manage to lure Lazarus into a church where the Doctor brings him down with ultrasonic organ music in a gothically inspired sequence. It was predictable that The Doctor would change his mind and decide to bring Martha along for more adventures, but it's still fairly clear that she wants to be more than she is in his eyes. It's fun to watch this relationship develop and gradually change, and makes it somewhat less painful that Rose isn't around anymore.


Rating: 4/10