May 28: "The New World" (TW)

It's the thing I'm not really sure anyone expected.  Torchwood: Children of Earth ended pretty definitively; yes, they'd saved the planet and the children, but the cost to Torchwood had been dear and Captain Jack had in fact left the planet at the end.  A bleak ending, to be sure, but it was an ending.

But then an American premium cable network, Starz, decided to co-produce another series with the BBC (after a rumored deal with Fox (which had aired the Paul McGann movie in the US) fell through), and so Torchwood was back, now in a trans-Atlantic form but still helmed by Russell T Davies.  And, understandably but something of a first, new episodes premiered in the US a week before they aired in the UK.  (However, I'll be conforming to UK airdates where relevant, in keeping with earlier non-UK shows like K-9.)

This first episode is an impressive opening, to be sure.  Miracle Day is clearly intended to be a mini-series like Children of Earth was (albeit twice as long), and "The New World" does a good job of setting up the basic premise while keeping everything taut and involving.  It's a simple idea -- suddenly, no one in the world can die -- but it's explored with some thought.  The most obvious exploration is the character of CIA agent Rex Matheson, who is impaled through the chest but doesn't die.  "You should've died last night," Dr. Vera Juarez tells Rex, "but when this thing happened, the Miracle, it gave me time to fix you.  Without the Miracle, you'd be dead."  What's not clear, however, is whether Rex can actually heal, and what will happen when the Miracle ends.  "Do I die?" he asks Vera, but she doesn't have an answer.

We also see the aftermath of Children of Earth for Gwen and Rhys, as they're living in a farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere, continually worried that someone will find them and either take them away or kill them.  The scene where Gwen is talking to the two hikers with a gun held behind her back is evidence that Gwen is still dealing with extreme paranoia.  (Correctly, it turns out, if the knowing looks the two hikers give each other afterwards are as significant as they're made to appear.)  But Gwen and Rhys have a beautiful daughter, Anwen, and they need to make certain she'll be safe.

Rex, Jack, Rhys, and Gwen watch as a helicopter is about to
crash into them. ("The New World") ©BBC Worldwide, Limited

But as I said, it's the exploration of the idea of immortality that makes this interesting.  Not only do we have Rex, and the discussions between Gwen and PC Andy Davidson (Hooray!  Another returning cast member) pointing out that this miracle is targeted specifically at humans but that this will cause the world population to explode exponentially and all the problems with food and space that that entails, but we're also presented with the character of Oswald Danes, a convicted pedophile and murderer who was about to be executed by lethal injection when the Miracle happened.  They've gotten in Bill Pullman to play Danes -- no mean feat, given the star quality he brings -- and he chooses to play Danes as slimy and conniving; even when he's being executed he gives off an air of unlikability, and afterwards he's even more distasteful.  Then there are things like the man sent to kill Captain Jack, who is at the center of the explosion at the CIA Archives but is still alive, despite being horrifically burned -- and as we learn in a quite gruesome scene, even when his head is removed from his body he remains alive.

However, this is Torchwood, and so of course Torchwood is somehow at the heart of it all.  A message went out around the world that simply read TORCHWOOD at the exact same time the miracle happened -- it's not a coincidence, but it wasn't from Torchwood themselves, either.  It got Captain Jack's attention, though.  Someone clearly wants to tie the Miracle to Torchwood, but who and for what purpose remains a mystery.  Still, it intrigues Rex enough to go find the surviving members, so that he can extradite them to the United States in connection with the Miracle...

Gorgeously scripted and shot, with fine acting all around and a story that intrigues and doesn't let up, "The New World" is a stylish new beginning for Torchwood.  If they maintain this level of quality over the next nine episodes, Miracle Day will be an absolute winner.

May 27: "A Good Man Goes to War" Prequel / "A Good Man Goes to War"

The prequel is just a quick scene, showing Dorium selling security software to the Headless Monks and cautioning them against angering the Doctor for stealing his best friends' child, but it definitely puts you in the right frame of mind for the main event...

This is a bit of an odd episode to judge, as it's not really a story in its own right; rather, it's part of the overarching plot of series 6.  Except even then it's not quite; we get more information and resolution regarding Amy and Rory's baby Melody, but the big question lurking in the background -- that of the Doctor's death -- is only briefly alluded to.  We'll have to wait for that.

But what "A Good Man Goes to War" does is pull off its troop-gathering with considerable style.  We get some highly incongruous characters -- Rory dressed as a Roman centurion, presumably as a symbol ("the Doctor's idea", Rory tells River), an Earth reptile stopping Jack the Ripper in Victorian England, a Sontaran soldier acting as a nurse by way of atonement for his "clone group" -- all being brought together to fight a war against an enemy whose sole purpose is to stop the Doctor.²³¹  They're terrified of him, and they're preparing for an onslaught.  It's not dwelled upon -- there's the moment where the soldiers are quizzing each other regarding psychic paper, and there's a sign about the sonic screwdriver which reads "REMEMBER: 1. It's not sonic. 2. It's not a screwdriver" -- but it's definitely there.

Because we've had flirtations with the theme before, but this is the first time where they unequivocally state that the Doctor makes enemies and terrifies people, and not just the villains; here we see members of the Church of England, who were the Doctor's allies in "The Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone", now working against him out of fear.  Fear of what, we don't exactly know, but fear nonetheless.  Note how Colonel Manton has to reassure the troops that the Doctor "is not the devil.  He is not a god.  He is not a goblin, or a phantom or a trickster.  The Doctor is a living, breathing man", because that needed saying.  The Doctor is a dark legend, and these people are scared of him even as they try to stop him.

Strax, Rory, Lorna, Vastra, and Jenny prepare to fight on
behalf of the Doctor. ("A Good Man Goes to War") ©BBC

However, this is still the Doctor and we're still on his side, and the other side has done worse things to his friends, so it's not like there's a question as to who actually holds the higher moral ground.  And so what we get is a thrilling action sequence, as the Doctor reveals himself in the midst of all the soldiers and then gets them all to leave without killing anyone, all in his pursuit of Amy.  It's a good moment, even if it's later compromised by all the people killed when Madame Kovarian springs her trap.  Plus there's the stuff with Amy and Rory's baby, the suggestion that she's been experimented on (presumably while still in the womb) in order to create a Time Lord to use as a weapon.  "Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?" the Doctor wonders.  "Well, they've seen you," Vastra replies, leading to a slight crisis of conscience for the Doctor, it seems.  But it's still an interesting idea, and the cheat of the Ganger Melody is a good, albeit heartbreaking one.  Madame Kovarian has gotten away for another day.

It's a good, solid episode, with some cool ideas floating around, even if it's not exactly a complete story in its own right.  And it's a hell of a cliffhanger they send off this first half²³² of the season on, with finally the reveal of just who River Song is -- she's Melody Pond, all grown up.  Of course, we still don't know why she's in prison (although we can hazard a guess, based on the clues they've been dropping...), but that will come in time.  "A Good Man Goes to War" remains an entertaining, albeit somewhat transitional, episode.







²³¹ Apparently Ood Sigma was also going to make an appearance but it was cut for time -- but that's why Russell T Davies is credited as the creator of the Ood in the credits.  It seems they also offered a spot for Captain Jack, but he was busy filming Torchwood.
²³² That's something of a first, breaking up a series American-style into multiple runs -- as opposed to a small break over Christmas, which had happened before.  This was allegedly for storytelling reasons, but some have wondered if this was a knock-on effect of the 2008 financial crisis followed by Britain's adoption of austerity, requiring the BBC to have to spread the money out a bit to make it last.  Note how series 7 is also split into two halves but spread over two years, while series 8 (made after the UK eased back a bit on austerity policies, which contributed to some growth for the UK's economy) was back to one single run (albeit an episode shorter).

May 26: "The Almost People"

I don't think that Matthew Graham was actively aping Chris Chibnall when he wrote this story; it's more that they both have similar ideas and similar old Who stories in their DNA, particularly the work of Malcolm Hulke.  But it does mean that this episode, like the last, feels familiar -- and there are little in the way of surprise moments to really wow us.

The two Doctors. ("The Almost People") ©BBC

The best part of the episode is easily the presence of two Doctors, one the original and one a Ganger who nevertheless proves that the Gangers are just as much the people they're copies of as the originals, once they've stabilized.  The interaction of the Doctor with himself is handled well -- none of your Troughton/Pertwee bickering here -- and the small tell of the different shoes is used to great effect.  The first time around, when you see the Ganger Doctor isolated from the rest of the group because of his nature and then you see him lose control and rage -- rage! -- against Amy because of the fates of all the Gangers who were slaved to their hosts, being "decommissioned" and wondering "Why?", is powerful, and it's painful to watch Amy's prejudice against what she deems to be an inferior copy.  The second time around, after you learn that the Doctors changed places (probably while behind that communications console) and it's the original Doctor who feels the Gangers' pain, while the Ganger version remains calm and collected, this becomes much more intense.  It's one thing to see a cloned Doctor lose control; it's altogether more powerful when it's "our" Doctor, and the treatment he undergoes at the hands of the humans is more uncomfortable than it already was.  But that's the point; if even Amy can't actually tell the difference between the two, how can anyone judge the Gangers as being somehow less than people?

That's the core of the story, and they do a nice job of teasing it out without being overbearing about it, but sadly we have to go through a fairly generic story on the way there.  There are some nice moments along the way, such as the Ganger Cleaves pointing out that Jennifer was "a sweet kid.  Look at you now.  The stuff of nightmares," the fate of all the Gangers that didn't quite come out right, and the resolution of the story, where the Gangers essentially say, "Stuff this, what's the point?" and stop trying to kill the humans.

But everything else feels, if not exactly comfortable, at least fairly routine.  We've seen this sort of thing before, and "The Rebel Flesh" / "The Almost People" doesn't have much new or interesting to say.  As I said, there are flashes of greatness, and I like how the story ends with a commitment to change things, rather than for all the Gangers to die, but this frequently feels like a typical runaround.  Still, we're leaps and bounds ahead of "Fear Her", so that's something at least.

Oh, and there's the cliffhanger into the next story, with Amy revealed to be a more sophisticated Ganger who the Doctor destroys (which goes against the whole point of the story, but never mind), while the real Amy is about to give birth (hence the "pregnant"/"not pregnant" readings the Ganger Amy was giving off).  TO BE CONTINUED, the ending tells us, evoking the language of a show that's going to resolve things in a few months, rather than the following week.  But I suppose they were excited about their cliffhanger and wanted to show off.

May 25: "The Rebel Flesh"

Matthew Graham's second story for the show is a lot like Chris Chibnall's last one.  In that story, we got a conflict between humans and Earth reptiles in an isolated area, where both sides do good and bad things and neither comes out as morally superior; here we get a conflict between humans and the doppelgängers they've created in an isolated area, where both sides do good and bad things and neither comes out as morally superior.

The Gangers. ("The Rebel Flesh") ©BBC

Of course, while the basics are largely similar, the devil's in the details, and those details are different enough that this doesn't come out as a pure remake, even if there's frequently a sense of déjà vu.  We get quite a bit of backstory about the Gangers and how they've been created by people to be sort of remote controlled clones, mainly so that we understand what's going on.  But that's good; they've taken enough care with this that we can sort of see the original people's point, even if the episode is set up so that we're unlikely to agree with it.

But as I said, there is that lingering sense that we've already had this story before, so it's nice to see the changes.  The underlying setup is doubly bizarre (there's an island monastery that's mining for acid for some unexplained reason, and solar storms can cause earthquakes and things), but there are some lovely moments.  Rory's treatment of the Ganger Jennifer is really lovely, as he's willing to help her even though she (sort of) tried to kill him earlier, in a fit of anguished anger.  The interaction between the two Jimmys is handled well, as neither of them seem to be violent, and the cliffhanger is the logical conclusion to all the running around with doubles that we see here.

It's not great, but it's moderately entertaining so far.  The question that the next episode is going to have answer, however, is the fate of the Gangers.  If they can avoid killing them all, this might turn into a more interesting story than it initially appears to be.

May 24: "The Doctor's Wife"

In 1983, producer John Nathan-Turner was concerned that he had a fan leak somewhere in the Doctor Who production office, so he laid a deliberate trap: on the planning board in his office, in place of The Caves of Androzani, he wrote "The Doctor's Wife by Robert Holmes" as a fake title to see who would bite.  (I've never heard if anyone did.)  But since that title entered fanlore, it's probably been only a matter of time until a real story under that name would show up.  Fortunately, the story we got was so much better than anything we could have imagined with that title.

"The Doctor's Wife" is by Neil Gaiman, who rivals Douglas Adams for the title of "most famous author to write for Doctor Who" (the other primary contenders are Richard Curtis ("Vincent and the Doctor") and Frank Cottrell Boyce ("In the Forest of the Night")), and it's likely because he's so well-known and highly regarded that they've let him play with the mythology of the show so much.  You can tell that Gaiman has fond memories of the old show -- how else to explain the use of the Time Lord distress cube that we last saw way back in The War Games? -- and that he's drawing on that to write this story.  And so we get a strange entity that tricks Time Lords and feeds on TARDISes, only it's found out that there are no more TARDISes coming, so it's time to head into the real universe from the bubble universe it's inside.

But of course, if you're hiring Neil Gaiman to write an episode for your show, it's probably because you're looking for the qualities that Gaiman brings, that sense of magic mixed with the ordinary, of fantastic situations that characters nevertheless react rationally to, and "The Doctor's Wife" doesn't disappoint on that front.  And so we get the marvelously wonderful and audacious conceit of taking the "soul" of the TARDIS (for lack of a better word) and putting it inside a humanoid body (that of Suranne Jones, who was the Mona Lisa in the Sarah Jane Adventures story Mona Lisa's Revenge), which allows the Doctor to have a conversation with his TARDIS.  But it's not just that; Neil Gaiman takes 48 years of the show's history and turns it on its head:

IDRIS: Do you ever wonder why I chose you all those years ago?
DOCTOR: I chose you.  You were unlocked.
IDRIS: Of course I was.  I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away.  And you were the only one mad enough.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - The Doctor's Wife)

Idris and the Doctor in the junkyard TARDIS. ("The Doctor's
Wife") ©BBC

A simple, quick piece of dialogue, but it changes our whole understanding of things -- and the episode's filled with lovely little touches like that.  (There's the "Pull to Open" discussion²³⁰, but my favorite bit is how Idris/the TARDIS reminds the Doctor that the first thing he ever said to her was that she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever known -- there's something oddly wonderful about imagining Hartnell saying that.)  This is a story that is absolutely in love with the show and the mythology that's been created, but it isn't so reverent that it causes everything to sink.  There's just the right balance to make this feel wonderful and special.

And while we could justly laud the other elements of this story (Amy and Rory's chase through the TARDIS corridors (ooh, TARDIS corridors!  It's been ages since we've seen any of those) is tense and scary, and the mind tricks House is playing on Amy are genuinely creepy; the way Idris thinks that Rory is the "pretty one" is wonderful; the appearance of the ninth/tenth Doctor's "coral" TARDIS console room is thrilling; the way the junkyard TARDIS is the result of a Blue Peter contest; "Fear me, I've killed all of them"; and so much more), ultimately this story is about the one thing always with the Doctor: his TARDIS, the closest thing to a wife we've ever seen him have.  "Look at you pair," Amy says at the end.  "It's always you and her, isn't it, long after the rest of us have gone.  A boy and his box, off to see the universe."  And it is.  And for one brief moment, the Doctor got to talk to his TARDIS and hear her reply.  It's mad, bold, magic, and beautiful, and more evidence that even after 48 years, the show still has the ability to surprise us, and to do so with both style and heart.  Little wonder it won the Hugo.








²³⁰ As many people pointed out after this episode was broadcast, the "Pull to Open" message refers to the door on the phone compartment, not the main door.  But that doesn't actually change Gaiman's point, which is that real police box doors did indeed open outward -- the TARDIS doors open inward because of space concerns in the '60s studio.  (Note, for comparison, that the doors of Tardis open outward in both Peter Cushing films, where floor space isn't an issue.)

May 23: "The Curse of the Black Spot" Prequel / "The Curse of the Black Spot"

The prequel for this episode is suitably tense, as Captain Avery writes of the nameless enemy that's been picking off his crew, one by one.  In fact, it might be better than anything in the episode proper...

The crew of the Fancy wait for the Siren to come. ("The
Curse of the Black Spot") ©BBC

To be fair, for much of "The Curse of the Black Spot" we get a competent episode, as we're confronted with pirates (Captain Henry Avery, in fact, last mentioned in The Smugglers²²⁸), a strange Siren stealing away crewmen, and a ship lying motionless in doldrums.  It also creates an effective atmosphere of dread, as the remaining crewmen are slowly picked off one by one by the Siren -- meaning that their allies are growing fewer and fewer and that every person left becomes that much more important.²²⁹  So there's a sense of murkiness and claustrophobia that pervades the entire episode.  (Which is why it's odd that Steven Moffat moved this episode up from the second half of the series during its filming because he felt the first half was too dark -- apparently he thought this would be a lot more swashbuckling than it actually ended up being.)

But it's an effective atmosphere, and the Doctor's realization that he's gotten wrong the way the Siren appears is rather nice, even if it leads to all sorts of logical problems (so breathing on a medallion is enough to stop the Siren using it, but opening a barrel of water in the middle of a storm isn't).  The only issue is that it's not particularly exciting.  Having them all terrified of the smallest wounds is clever, but it doesn't make for the most thrilling drama, and the sense of terror this creates isn't quite enough to paper over the problem.  You never get the feeling that these pirates will betray each other at the drop of a hat (despite the effort to convey this when Mulligan steals the keys and darts out of the magazine), which is really what this story needs: internal tensions as well as external threats.

None of this is necessarily a dealbreaker, but the story hits a major problem when they transport to the spaceship (and how is it that they weren't hooked up to hospital beds like every other person brought aboard?), and that's the problem of the Siren.  In the best Doctor Who stories, the Doctor should be one step ahead of the audience, or at least coming to significant realizations at the same time, but here we have to wait a painfully long time until the Doctor realizes that this is a hospital ship and that the Siren is trying to help, not harm.  This became pretty clear the moment they stepped into the sickbay and saw that everyone was still alive, but the script insists on having the Doctor believe the Siren is malicious for quite a while, and it makes for tedious viewing that the story never quite recovers from.  It doesn't help that there's a lingering feeling of "so what?" at the end of this -- although that might be more down to the direction than the script itself, as Steve Thompson does try to underline the threat of the Siren reaching the mainland.  But it's a bit too abstract for us the audience to really latch on to.

So there are two problems central to "The Curse of the Black Spot".  The first is that it can't decide if it wants to be a swashbuckling adventure with all the pirate clichés present and correct or a claustrophobic horror movie where trapped survivors are picked off one by one, and so it tries to have it both ways -- but the result is that it doesn't fully succeed at either.  The second problem is that the resolution goes on way too long and doesn't feel particularly satisfying when we learn what's really going on.  Bless them, they did try, but "The Curse of the Black Spot" falls rather short of the standard we've come to expect.







²²⁸ This is actually a coincidence, as writer Steve Thompson simply picked an historical pirate who disappeared without being captured, rather than trying to make an explicit connection.  Nevertheless, as the pirates in The Smugglers are obsessed with finding Avery's treasure, it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume they're talking about the same person as here.
²²⁹ Er, except for the Boatswain, who, somewhat infamously, suddenly disappears from the narrative after we see him barricade the magazine, with no explanation whatsoever.  Because this is Moffat's Doctor Who, where we've already seen last series that "goofs" are just clever bits of foreshadowing, people wondered what the significance of the Boatswain's sudden disappearance was.  But alas, it's just a continuity error, the result of his "death" scene being cut in editing.  And besides, you can see him as one of Avery's crew in their final scene.

May 22: "Day of the Moon"

As dark as "The Impossible Astronaut" seemed, with its killing of the Doctor and investigations of aliens who you can't remember, "Day of the Moon" is much darker.  There's a sense of ratcheting up the paranoia in this episode, as our heroes try to fight an enemy that are almost impossible to learn about and who have been here for thousands of years.  "They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head: we are not fighting an alien invasion, we're leading a revolution," the Doctor tells the others.  (So that's another alien species interfering with humanity's development to add to the list.)

The opening scenes are pretty tense, with Amy, River, and Rory covered in tally marks and being hunted by Canton for the last three months²²⁶, while the Doctor is kept in chains at Area 51 and slowly entombed in a building made of dwarf star alloy (with no explanation beyond the hand-wavy "Area 51" reference as to how 1969 Americans came across such advanced technology -- but at least we get a Warriors' Gate reference).  The cliffhanger is barely addressed, other than a brief flashback (to see something we haven't actually seen yet, but it's treated like a flashback) to show that Amy didn't kill the child in the astronaut suit and that Canton sees a Silent there.  It's not actually clear what we're meant to think regarding Canton -- even when it becomes clear that he was just trying to get everyone in a space that the Silents²²⁷ couldn't listen in on, it's still not obvious what his cover story was.  But fine, now it's time to go on the offensive.

The girl in the astronaut suit, flanked by two Silents. ("Day
of the Moon") ©BBC

Honestly, it's a clever plan, even if it feels a bit bloodthirsty by the Doctor's normal standards, and we get lots of moments where people confront the Silents and don't remember it -- the case of Dr. Renfrew in the children's home being particularly well done, as the Silents have been around him so much that he's essentially lost two years of his life.  But it's still rather convenient that they manage to get a recording of a Silent saying that humanity should kill them when they see them.  Nevertheless, it provides for a suitably epic conclusion, as everyone watching the moon landing turns on the Silents in the room with them.

Other parts that are entertaining involve Nixon rescuing the Doctor from various circumstances, while being rather confused by what's going on.  Still, they're fun sequences, and you can tell Steven Moffat is getting a little kick out of the Doctor telling Nixon to record everything, just in case the Silents try to get to him, and inadvertently creating the Nixon White House tapes as a result.  And there's also the exchange between Nixon and the Doctor: "Will I be remembered?" Nixon asks.  "Oh, Dicky.  Tricky Dicky.  They're never going to forget you," the Doctor replies.  Oh, and while we're discussing good moments, the final one between River and the Doctor, where he kisses her for the first time and she realizes it will be the last time she kisses him (because their lives are running in opposite directions), is heartbreaking.

This is an episode that's brimming with the same self-confidence that characterized much of the previous series, but it's also an episode that sees a definite shift in the way the long-running plot threads are treated.  Under Russell T Davies, and even last series to an extent, they were a sort of extra, a little bonus for those willing to stick with an entire run but not necessary for casual viewers to have kept up with.  Here, on the other hand, those plot threads look like they're increasingly the point.  We have an awful lot of unanswered questions here at the end of "Day of the Moon": what's the deal with Amy's pregnancy?  What was up with the lady with the eyepatch?  Who was the little girl, and how could she possibly be regenerating at the end?  Are these Silents related to the TARDIS exploding (it's a good bet they are), and if so, how?  As such it's a bit difficult to adequately evaluate "The Impossible Astronaut" / "Day of the Moon"; the story itself is told with great aplomb, but it trusts that the audience will stick with the series to find out the answers to these lingering questions -- but that puts pressure on subsequent episodes to deliver good explanations...







²²⁶ It's presumably during this time period that Amy is replaced by her double, given the pregnancy comments that (more or less) immediately follow the reunion of the Doctor and Amy.
²²⁷ Another minor controversy: Silence or Silents?  The end credits list Marnix van den Broeke as playing "the Silent", but the DVD subtitles opt for "Silence" every time the aliens are referred to.  It gets more complicated when you factor in later stories, which talk about a religious order called the Silence.  The TARDIS wiki appears to have opted for "Silence" for the order and "Silents" for members of the alien race, which is as good a distinction as any.