Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

With the big dramatic ending and the very heavy situation you might have expected something with high terror, and a tense as a person can get. The Big Bang delivered almost exactly the opposite.

Was there some tension? Sure, where there several live and death moments, yup. But on the whole The Big Bang is a totally uplifting and lighthearted story that is just plain fun.

It’s not what you would expect from a season finale, the tension isn’t from the saving of the universe, it comes afterwords and plays itself very well.

Arthur Darvill’s Rory nearly steals the first third of the episode, his scenes with the Amy and the Doctor are powerful and really make the episode in a lot of way. Most of the “heavy” time comes from it yet even so the writing is so good that it isn’t so heavy that we can’t deal with it.

Alex Kingston has a much smaller part, but that’s ok, she is not the focus of the episode and she does have one very memorable moment.

One attractive piece of the story is the fact that not everything is resolved. That gives us something to look forward to for next season.

One final thing about all of this there is a big discontinuity with the fifth Doctor Episode Mawdryn Undead that longtime fans will spot right off, but we’ll let the BBC handle that.

That last 10 minutes contain not only some of the most pleasant moments of the entire run and something takes place that has never ever happened in the whole 47 years.

I’d have to say The Pandorica Opens is slightly better but the difference is so slight as to be almost meaningless.

One last thought, this episode is 55 minutes long, The Pandorica is 50 minutes long, that leaves only 15 minutes in two hours for commercials so I expect they will do some cutting. Perhaps they will cut the opening credits in the 2nd episode to save a few but I will be very upset if they slice and dice this thing.

Rating *****

Last Episode: The Pandorica Opens

Next Episode: Only 5 months away!

After three weeks (of if you are watching today’s marathon 3 hours) of average or worse episodes The Lodger brings an incredible uptick in quality that is glorious.

The Doctor traces a time disturbance that is messing with the TARDIS to a building in Colchester where lives an ordinary bloke named Craig (played magnificently by James Corden) who is looking for a roommate. Craig is hopelessly in love with the fair Sophie (Daisy Haggard) and Daisy seems to fancy him too but neither one seems able to pull the trigger, Craig can’t bring himself to do it and Sophie keeps giving him the chance but neither can make themselves take the jump.

Meanwhile the Doctor is trying to imitate ordinary life and pass as an average single bloke, with incredibly comic results that drive Craig up the wall.

Everything about this episode works, from the bag of money to the football game, to the head butt of knowledge. The resolution is slightly corny but given the lead into it works much better than it really should.

Is it the best episode of the series? Nope, is it the one I enjoy watching the most? Yup.

Rating: *****

Last episode: Vincent and the Doctor

Next Episode: The Pandorica Opens

Update: This has nothing to do with the marathon but I liked it. What if Doctor who was American?

And does anyone else find it Ironic that the “Trust me I’m the Doctor.” scene showed in the BBC America promo was cut from The Eleventh Hour today?

You know almost every season you run into an episode of Dr. Who that I find so bad that I make it a point to skip it when it comes on. In Series 1 it’s The long game, not that it’s so bad but the other ones are so much better, In series 2 it was Fear Her, the single worst episode of the new series bar none. Series 3 had 3 below average episodes but the one I skip is Last of the Time Lords (The resolution was so bad that I find I just can’t watch it) In Series 4 it was Midnight and here in Series 5 we have Vincent and the Doctor..

The Doctor takes Amy to an art gallery where is spots something odd in a Van Gogh so back in time he and Amy go to investigate. Richard Curtis of Black Adder fame wrote this one and I would have expected a whole lot better from him but although the acting is actually pretty good, and there are some real tender moments but as a whole the story is so pedantic and the plot so uninspired that there is no contest which episode I would least like to watch of this series.

Where does it rank in the annals of badness of the revised series? behind The Long Game, ahead of Last of the Time Lords and just above or just below midnight depending on my mood. (It goes without saying it beats Fear Her but Fear her ranks with the worst of the entire series since 1963 and it takes some level of badness to get that low.

If you have an errand to run that can’t wait, this is the episode to run it during. Particularly since the quality is about to take a serious upturn.

Rating **

Last episode: Cold Blood

Next Episode: The Lodger