Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: amy pond, bbc, doctor who, matt smith, power of three, tv

Ten Thoughts About Doctor Who: The Power Of Three

Okay, so I've watched the new episode of Doctor Who, The Power Of Three. And as ever, here are ten things that popped into my head during it. Yes there are spoilers, hopefully not massive ones, but you'd be better off watching it first. And then watching it again afterwards. Yes, that's best.

The Power Of Chibnall

I've never really warmed to anything Chris Chibnall has written on Doctor Who, or on Torchwood. This, however, was a pretty decent Doctor Who which skips over a massive cop out quite nicely and moves on. But everything before that, the use of the cubes, the passing of time, the way people just do things and the wonderful Brian made this my favourite episode of the season so far. Just, don't mention the ending. Okay, I may do later.

The Titles Are Getting Freakier

We ran a piece earlier in the week about the changing Doctor Who titles week by week, getting darker, with those Weeping Angels electricity bursts everywhere. This continued this week, but something else happened. This bit suddenly broke through. Which reminded me of seventies Doctor Who titles… hell, that's exactly what it is. So exactly just what is going on?

Bring On The John Wyndham

A Britain, a world, wakes up to the cubes, everywhere, getting slowly used to them, bored with then, until they strike. Which is basically exactly what happened with the Cybermen in Army Of Ghosts. But rather than the Doctor arriving at the end, we get to live through it. And so, to his annoyance, does he. But more than anything else, this reminded me of The Day of The Triffids, The Kraken Awakes, The Midwich Cuckoos, something amazingly unexpected, unexplainable has happened, and then it becomes the way things are and people get on with things. Until it all changes again, of course.

Legacy And Sustainability

Daughter of Colin Redgrave, niece of Vanessa Redgrave, Jemma Redgrave knows all about legacy. And she ably seems to step into the Brigadier;'s shoes as Kate Stewart of UNIT, this time the science in charge of military. Even if they are just as aggressive to the cubes as they were to any other alien threat.

We've seen this series how fewer and fewer people seem to know who the Doctor is. As least the Lethbridge-Stewarts still seem to remember him.

A Passage Of Time

The general Doctor Who story, for all its time travelling, take place in a very short space of time indeed. This week most echoes Pond Life as spreading out across a year. But also, it seems, A Town Called Mercy happened during the Ponds' wedding anniversary as they popped off for seven weeks and ended up leaving Rory's phone charger in Henry VIII's bathroom. Although here, it seems, Rory did manage to recover it…

But wasn't it really nice to take that extra time and spread it out. So that not everything could be resolved in half an hour of running around.

The Man Who Waited

It must be something in the Williams' DNA. Rory waited over two thousand years outside a box for Amy. And Brian spends a year looking at a box for the Doctor. Solid, safe, reliable, the Williams wait. And wait. And do what they are told. Just the kind of person Amy Pond needs. Because Rory is her companion… and he'll never wander off.

I Want A Cube

Okay, maybe not the one that bursts into flames or shoots you with a laser

or, indeed, stops your heart, even the one that plays The Birdy Song is a bit much but there must be one that tried to investigate human life by doing something nice, like giving a relaxing massage? It's worth fitting a pacemaker I reckon. Also, something inside? Alien life? It's the eggs again…

I wanted one of the Grains in Black Mirror as well. There's something wrong with me.

Massive Coincidence Ward

Okay, Doctor Who is full of massive coincidences. It's what it does. But Rory working in a hospital, one of five global sites where the cubes are being fed from? That needs an Infinite Improbability Drive to arrange.

Okay, That Ending

Firstly the Doctor getting defibrillated when one of his heart stops wouldn't work. Those paddles are for arrhythmic hearts, not flatliners. Okay, with one heart stopped, and the other trying to keep up, there may be some arrhythmia to be addressed, but it's a but of a push. But not as bad as the whizzy waving of a sonic screwdriver to fix everything in, well, a way that wouldn't work if people's hearts had stopped. And also whooshed over in about fifteen seconds. With little attention given to the shop, it's big plan and exactly what it's been doing for a hear, in favour of blowing it up. Was this another two parter that got rather truncated? It felt like we missed out on lots. Probably how Brian Williams feels. It's a rubbish ending, but the rest of the episode more than makes up for it. So watch that bit again instead.

Gall-Ossary

Just thought that some viewers, either non-UK, or non-versed in Doctor Who lore might need a little bringing up to date.

"Cream crackered" – rhyming slang for knackered, or tired out. From Jacob's Cream Crackers, biscuits for cheese. And the Knacker's Yard, where horse's would be taken to be slaughtered.

"The Birdie Song" by The Tweets. Known as The Chicken Dance in many places, but this version has been scientifically proven to be the most annoying, Yes, you'd want to keep that in a soundproof box. Measuring human reaction to extreme annoyance?

Alan Sugar. British businessman who heads the UK version of The Apprentice.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Senior figure in UNIT, met the Second Doctor as a Colonel, worked with the Third and Fourth Doctors extensively.

Zygons. Doctor Who aliens under Loch Ness in the seventies. Being under the Savoy Hotel in the eighteen nineties as well isn't much of a stretch.

Fish Fingers And Custard. The food that the little Amelia Pond made for the Doctor when they first met, that grounded him, that imprinted her on him like a little chicken and a hen… aww bless.

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