encyclops

It might be facile to say that Russell T. Davies wrote Doctor Who like a soap opera and Steven Moffat writes it like a sitcom. I’ve actually never seen any episodes of Queer as Folk or Coupling. Also, RTD was funny even when he was being serious, and Moffat is serious even when he is being . . . → Read More: the big bang

Liked it. There really isn’t a whole lot else I can say yet.

For about 34 minutes it seems pretty silly — not “The End of Time” silly, fortunately, but still “New Who Season Finale” silly: big, fast, loose, very kitchen-sink with the monsters and the gratuitous CGI.

Then River Song makes an important discovery, and everything . . . → Read More: the pandorica opens

Before we slide into the finale, I thought it worthwhile to recap where we’ve been up to now. Here, in three buckets but otherwise no particular order, are the 11 season 5 episodes we’ve had so far.

cream of the crop

the eleventh hour
Finest debut story since “Castrovalva.” (Granted, that’s not saying much, but I did like “Rose”. . . . → Read More: the season so far

I’m wondering if maybe I’m not a Doctor Who fan anymore. Because this was probably Doctor Who at its least like itself, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s a standard television plot: two best friends are in love, they can’t quite figure out how to tell each other, dangerously cool new friend appears and threatens the budding . . . → Read More: the lodger

Of course it’s what we’d all do if we had a time machine: slip back in time and see history being made. The future’s a dicier proposition. On the one hand, what you don’t know is always a little more exciting than what you think you do know. On the other hand, what you don’t know . . . → Read More: vincent and the doctor

“Cold Blood” is more fun than “The Hungry Earth,” if only because we finally get down into the Silurian city and spend most of our time there. It doesn’t look entirely real, but then again it isn’t; it’s a hollowed-out environment as artificial as anything we’ve built for ourselves aboveground. It’s also pretty sumptuous in parts; . . . → Read More: cold blood

Maybe it’s a classic monster thing. This was easily the most frustratingly patchy Eleventh Doctor episode for me since “Victory of the Daleks.” In some respects it’s almost worse, since it’s given the luxury of a two-parter’s pace and squanders it.

The first problem we have is once again summed up nicely in a throwaway quip. When . . . → Read More: the hungry earth

They’re either going to love this one or hate it. I’m pretty sure I loved it.

At first, taken in parts, it really seems a bit naff. You’ve got two realities, at least one of which may be a dream, each appearing to reflect the fantasies of one of “Amy’s boys.” You’ve got the Dream Lord, a . . . → Read More: amy’s choice

I’d started to worry that the Moffat era wasn’t going to work unless Moffat himself wrote the scripts, but “Vampires of Venice” helped me breathe a little easier.

The history’s just for color, of course. There’s no reason this story couldn’t have happened in Victorian England, or at the height of the Roman Empire, or the far . . . → Read More: vampires of venice

I’ve been time-delaying my Doctor Who commentary in deference to American fans, many of whom have to wait two weeks to catch up to what’s being aired in Britain, but I think I’m going to go ahead and start dropping them as I write them instead. So my reviews of “Vampires in/of/whatever Venice” and “Amy’s Choice” . . . → Read More: posts from the future