Did I say that out loud?
Well, not really. I typed it. But yes, you read that right. I have spent the last week watching Series 5 of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan
Why, you say?
Why, after all this time, do I suddenly show an interest in the TV show that I've previously bashed?
Here's my explanation. I follow a lot of people on tumblr who love Harry Potter. A lot of people who love Harry Potter simultaneously love Doctor Who, and for the past week or so my dashboard has been bombarded with images from the recent episodes, a lot of which look exciting and pretty.
This looks strangely intriguing! I said to myself. Indeed, I felt there was something different about these pictures/GIFS from the latest episode (or possibly episodes) than others I had seen. A new director, perhaps? A bigger budget? Maybe even just extra good graphics by the tumblr gang. Whatever it was, the TV show seemed to have a new spark, something that wasn't there before. Maybe something just sparked in me. Actually, if I'm honest I think the cinematography is what hooked me.
I wanted to watch whatever episodes everyone else was watching, but I realised that I couldn't do that without at least a little context. So last week I marched up the street and rented the first three discs from Series 5. And here, my friends, is my review. My personal opinion on the first 9 episodes with Matt Smith as the Doctor.
I will not be watching any of the previous series', but I might continue on after these episodes. What you must know, is that my current opinion on Doctor Who is based solely on these 9 episodes alone and that I do not intend to extend my opinion back to anything before Matt Smith. I have kept my viewing of Doctor Who a secret so as to avoid things such as "oh, but David Tennant was so much better", or "but you don't know any of the story before this!" or, "oh my gosh Erin like Doctor Who. WE MUST MAKE HER WATCH IT ALL".
Therefore, now that I have revealed this to you, I allow you to give comments, but not to drown me in all the goodness of Doctor Who fandom.
Each brief review will be followed with my "Current Doctor Who Status" which is how I feel about the show based on the episodes that I have watched, and this status will evolve with the build up of each episode.
So folks, here it is. The opinion of me, the girl who once bashed Doctor Who, on Doctor Who.
Episode 1 - The Eleventh Hour
I was worried that I'd gone mad as I popped the disc into my computer and flopped down with Justin to watch the tardis (TARDIS? Tardis? Is capitalisation important?) fly crazily through the skies of London, but once the Doctor sat down in front of Amelia Pond with a bowl of custard and some fish fingers and said, 'Look at you. Just sitting there!' I felt a little better about just sitting there, watching Doctor Who... Especially since I knew about the whole custard and fish thing from Charlie's video.
Terrible graphics and dorky badguys are pretty much a given for Doctor Who, so I was prepared. However, when Amy stepped into the room that she didn't even know existed (emphasis for effect) and that freaky serpent thing nearly snapped her neck, I was actually rather impressed. Especially when it transformed into a human using a dormant mind and the man and the dog moved and barked together because they were the same life form. That was actually pretty cool. The suspense built up as the episode continued, we met a cute nurse named Rory, the freaky serpent turned into a freaky woman with freaky twins, Amy collapsed, the freaky serpent turned into itself, and the Doctor saved the world and whatever. Not bad for a pilot episode.
Current Doctor Who Status: Doctor Who is not that bad.
Episode 2: The Beast Below
The episode that follows the pilot of a TV series is never very good, so I admit that my expectations weren't as high as before. That said, this episode really let me down. Honestly, it reminded me why I didn't watch Doctor Who. All the melodramatic music, the plot devices that spiralled into uselessness, the Queen that took herself (or her acting?) too seriously, and that sad story about the Star-Whale and the fact that it loved all the little children and blah blah blah. Not to mention the Doctor got really upset with Amy over the video and the beast saving thing. They barely know each other! I though he was a bit unfair. And she was a bit stupid. In short, this episode was lame, and I have nothing more to say.
Current Doctor Who Status: Doctor Who is so cheesy it hurts.
Episode 3: Victory of the Daleks
In an effort to continue my effort and salvage my low opinion of Doctor Who, I continued on to episode 3. I can't say that seeing the word "daleks" in the title was very encouraging, but hey, I was watching Doctor Who. It's inevitable. At this point, Mum came into the room and saw what we were watching a groaned, but I found out later that she's never seen a single episode.
Going back in time is always an improvement from going into the future, in my opinion. Important things have already happened that the viewer might care about, and the real past is always less cheesy than the imagined future.
Winston Churchill and his army of daleks was much more interesting than the space whale. I found myself a little bored with bits of this episode, particularly the Doctor's lengthy speech and random outbursts over the daleks. I was a bit confused. Possible this is because of my ignorance of the previous episodes, but also possibly because the daleks were ridiculously stupid and couldn't tell a detonator from a shortbread biscuit. I also have a big problem with the daleks' arms. They're just not scary. It's like they've got a whisk on one arm and plunger on the other (they probably did for real in the 1960's). Not very gripping in my opinion, no pun intended.
And, as a side note, if I were Amy I would've freaked out when the Doctor disappeared in the tardis to meet the daleks while she stayed with Winston. Amy, if you don't remember, he didn't come back for 12 years the first time!
Current Doctor Who Status: Doctor Who could be bit a more scary.
Episode 4: The Time of Angels
I asked for more scary, I got more scary. Don't Blink is the only good episode from the David Tennant series that I've seen (made a billion more times awesome by the appearance of Carey Mulligan), so I was pretty excited that the angels were returning.
During the episode, I got so excited I nearly wet my pants. Who knew a BBC science fiction show starring a man in a bow-tie could be so frightening?!
First, the angel comes out of the TV while Amy's trapped in the room.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any scarier, Angel dust comes out of her eye.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any scarier, they enter a giant cavern full of statues to hunt down the angel.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any scarier, ALL THE STATUES ARE WEEPING ANGELS.
And just when you thought you would probably die if it got scarier, the voice on the radio is actually the solider who has been killed by the weeping angel. Justin nearly cried.
Just when you thought the characters were going to get out alive and you were going to start breathing again, Amy's hand turns to stone and the Doctor's torch is going out!!!!!
They get free, but then they get trapped. And the episode ends. And you're lying there waiting for your lungs to expand for the first time in 45 minutes. Then Justin rolled over to face his bedside and saw this:
And freaked out like I've never seen him freak out before. I was in some crazy headspace between total horror, total hysteria, and total oh-my-gosh-that's-the-funniest-thing-in-the-world.
Current Doctor Who Status: Doctor Who is scary and awesome.
Episode 5: Flesh and Stone
Glad that episode 5 continued on with the Weeping Angels, the next morning I kept watching. The fear factor had dissipated slightly now that it was 11am rather than 11pm, but built up again once Amy starting counting down from 10 ... Justin figured out what she was doing by the time she said 9, so we waited in tense anticipation for the Doctor and River to figure out what was going on. I must admit that the Weeping Angels are probably the best monsters ever invented, because you have to keep your eyes open to stop them coming at you, but if you look into their eyes for too long you can't open yours! It's brilliant. Unless you're the Doctor, you can't win.
That said, this is my honest opinion on everything, so I have to add that there were a few dramatic moments that bothered me a bit - particularly the piano score playing in the background while the Doctor gave his "you have to start trusting me" speech to a sightless Amy. I want to throw something at the TV and yell, "stop taking yourself so seriously you stupid show!" They're too low budget for that sort of thing. It sounds like a soap-opera.
Speaking of bad things, I just remembered there was a kissing scene at the end. I was very confused. And it wasn't even because I don't know what happened before this series. The end of this episode was just ... confusing all together.
Anyway. It wasn't all bad, as I said. That's a couple of bad bits in a lot of good bits, so we're still going good!
Current Doctor Who Status: Thanks to Matt Smith, I'm actually enjoying Doctor Who.
Episode 6: Vampires in Venice
The cute nurse from episode 1 is back! I spent most of this episode going, "poor Rory" which annoyed Justin a little bit. Thankfully the Doctor was nice about the whole thing and brought him along and Amy got nicer as the episode progressed. So maybe the fish things were a bit lame, but I must admit I liked the fact that the vampires weren't really vampires. It was a nice twist and it made me forget about the usually bad graphics that Doctor Who is known for ... oh, except for the when the sky starting boiling, or whatever. That was a very sad-looking effect. In fact, that whole scene was a bit sad. Was the rain actually boiling hot, or something? The regular citizens seemed to think so, but the Doctor and his companions weren't very bothered ... I was a bit confused.
For me this episode was marginally above what my original expectation of a Doctor Who episode would be, so I was still interested to see more.
Current Doctor Who Status: I am uncharacteristically eager for more Doctor Who.
Episode 7: Amy's Choice
I was really angry at this episode when it first started because it appeared to have skipped five years in the characters' lives for no apparent reason - that is, until it was revealed that it was possibly a dream. Then it became awesome instead of stupid.
This was probably one of the more exciting episodes because there was the suspense factor of not knowing which 'world' was the real one. Although that dream guy and the fake ice on everyone's faces were a bit lame. I'm also unsure on my feelings towards Amy's character, because on one hand I kind of like her sarcasm because it adds humor, and on another she can be a bit annoying. She and Rory are also a bit cute, though.
And if you're going to add interesting plot devices such as the TARDIS (Tardis?) floating towards a cold star, can you at least explain a little more about this? Because it turned out that the cold star WAS in the real world and yet that's what had made them think maybe it was the dream world, and so then the star was real but then was it real? And why was it cold? Yeah. Confusing.
Current Doctor Who Status: Confused. Why am I finding so many little things to pick apart and yet I still want to keep watching??
Episode 8: The Hungry Earth
This episode was honestly a bit boring. I mean, I didn't really care about any of the other characters except the Doctor and his companions, and we'll all know they'll be fine... right?
I took note of the engagement ring foreshadowing at the start of this episode, because no TV show spends precious minutes on that sort of thing if it's not important, so I knew it would mean something.
So, the ground attack some miners really wasn't that exciting. It got a little better when we found out there were actual bad guys, but the episode's minor (note the difference in spelling) characters were all a bit annoying and boring. Especially the wife. Urgh.
Current Doctor Who Status: Oh, poo. It's a double episode. Guess I haven't got a choice but to keep going.
Episode 9: Cold Blood
So the Doctor goes down into the earth and finds some weirdo reptilian civilization who claims to have owned the world before humans. Big whoop. I got a bit more interested when Amy nearly got dissected, though. That's the kind of suspense I like! And to top it off, once the lizard-man got distracted she took his unlocking remote thing. Now we're getting somewhere.
It was terribly predictable that Mrs. I Just Want My Family was going to kill the captured lizard-woman on the surface, so can't say I was freaking out there. Just looking at the screen going, 'You're an idiot.' And then turning to Justin and going, 'She's an idiot.' And then looking back at the screen saying, 'This is stupid.'
And then RORY DIED. And then I was sad because that was the reason for the engagement ring foreshadowing. And then Amy forgot him. And then the Doctor couldn't tell her. And then he realised that the piece he pulled out of the crack WAS PART OF THE TARDIS. Ohmygoshaspoasleblasyahilkbelbeasojlkenrl.
Current Doctor Who Status: I have a confession to make. When we were at Engage (so Kristy, Oliver and Dan, I'm talking to you) and you guys said that Doctor Who was on the next night, I texted Justin and told him to tape it so we could watch some of the recent episodes when we're up to them. So you know what this means. I like Matt Smith and Doctor Who. But not David Tennant. I'm sorry I'm weird. And I didn't tell anyone because my decision on the show wasn't finalised. But I guess I just have to say it... I ... like ... Doctor Who. The end!
So there you have it. You're probably just as shocked as I am. When I can get my hands on the next few episodes I will probably write another post. For now, I leave you with some hair eye-candy.
Admit it. You're staring.
Again like I said nice reviews. I hope to see what you think of the rest of season 5 but no rush.
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