Doctor Who Thread III: Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow

[Androgeus]

I'm bored right now so I thought I'd do a threat level analysis of every New Who story.

Threat Level:
None - There is no threat to anyone in this episode whatsoever (I don't think anything falls in to this level)
Personal - The episode's major threat is to the Doctor and supporting cast for the episode.
Local - Threat is to the immediate area around which the episode takes place.
National - Threat is to an area the size of a country (most likely to be U.K.)
Global - Threat is to an entire planet.
Species - Threat of the episode is to alter an entire species for the worse.
Universal - The threat applies to the entirety of space and/or time.

Any threat with a * after means I'm not totally sure if I have it right, a ? means I have no idea if my choice is correct.

Series One

Spoiler

Show

Rose - Global, Nestene Consciousness wants to take over the world for food
The End of the World - Personal, Cassandra tries to hold Platform One hostage/kill everyone on board
The Unquiet Dead - Global, Gelth want a new planet
Aliens of London/World War Three - Global, Slitheen want to cause nuclear war so they can easily sell the minerals (I think)
Dalek - National*, the episode centres around trying to stop the Dalek escaping. Could be bumped up to global depending on how dangerous one Dalek is.
The Long Game - Species, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe was using the media to repress humanity's progress.
Father's Day - Local*, Reapers consume everything in sight. I'm making a guess here that the Reapers will stop at some point here.
The Empty Child/Doctor Dances - Species, Zombie-like plague that would have eventually changed the entire human race.
Boom Town - Global, Nuclear plant that threatens to open the rift and blow up the earth.
Bad Wolf/Parting of Ways - Global/Species*, Daleks threaten to invade Earth, turning a large number of humans in to Daleks(most likely). Could turn daleks in to threat to entire universe.

Series 2

Spoiler

Show

The Christmas Invasion - Species, Sycorax want to turn humans in to slave race
New Earth - Local, Zombie plague in hospital
Tooth and Nail - Personal?, Werewolf trying to kill people? I've only really half seen this episode so am unsure as to the plot.
School Reunion - Universal, The Krillitane are trying to solve something that would give them god like powers
The Girl in the Fireplace - Personal, Clockwork Robots are out for Madame de Pompadour's brain
Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel - Species, Cybermen want to convert the planet
The Idiot's Lantern - Local*, The wire is trying to eat everyone's mind, she could only reach people in the area Magpie was giving tellys to right?
The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit - Universal*, The "Devil" getting out of its prison is surely bad thing for the entire universe right?
Love & Monsters - Personal*, Blue Peter monster contest winner wants to absorb the doctor. Did it have any further plans?
Fear Her - Universal, it's so bad it's a threat to the entire universe.
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday - Species/Universal - Cybermen get bored of own universe decide to have a crack at the main one & Cult of Skaro come out of hiding to campaign for shorter prison sentences for war convicts

Series 3

Spoiler

Show

The Runaway Bride - Global*, Racnoss would consume all life on earth if awakened, awakened may be universal threat?
Smith and Jones - Local, Judoon puts a hospital at risk to apprehend one criminal
The Shakespeare Code - Global???, What were the Carrionites' plans once released?
Gridlock - Local/National*, The people on the motorway will die eventually because no one can leave. threat depends on number of motorist
Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks - Species/Universal*, Daleks want to create Human-Dalek army, a Dalek army is a universal threat?
The Lazarus Experiment - Local, Lazarus was a threat to the local populace but would likely have been easily taken down
42 - Personal, Damaged starship going to fall in to sun. could be global if you take the stars side in this episode.
Human Nature/Family of Blood - Local*, Family of blood was a threat to the village and school. What did they plan to do with the Doctor's body if they got it?
Blink - Personal, Angel's only seem to be a threat to the cast, don't seem to want anything but to feed off the Tardis
Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords - Universal, The Master threatens to start war with/destroy the entire universe

Series 4

Spoiler

Show

Voyage of the Damned - National, Starship Titanic is about to crash in to the earth causing a nuclear explosion in London
Partners in Crime - Local, Diet pills were only given to London population.
The Fires of Pompeii - Species, Pyroviles are trying to convert humans into Pyroviles.
Planet of the Ooooood - Species or Local, local threat to the facility from ood, species threat to the Ood as high up offical suit dude plans on destroying the hive brain thingy.
The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky - Global, Sontaran's plan to gas the earth then use if as a breeding ground
The Doctor's Daughter - Personal/Local?, Not really sure at all here, input wanted
The Unicorn and the Wasp - Personal, The wasp was a threat to the inhabitants, staff, and guests of the manor
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead - Personal*, The Vashta Nerada only act according to their instincts when meat enters their territory, they have no plans to spread beyond the library. Was an Ex-global threat however as they were going to kill the whole library when they first awoke
Midnight - Personal, The presence appeared to only be a threat to the people on the ship. We don't know what it would have done once it had returned to civilization however.
Turn Left - Universal, The Trickster's plot would have ended with the Doctor not stopping Davros's reality bomb
The Stolen Earth/Journey's End - Universal, Reality Bomb. duh.

Specials

Spoiler

Show

The Next Doctor - Species, Cybermen, conquer earth, convert humans.
The Planet of the Dead - Global, the alien hive was going to warp to earth and try to eat it all
The Waters of Mars - Global*, Water virus wants to get to Earth and erm go for a swim?
The End of Time - Universal, Time Lords want to end time

Series 5

Spoiler

Show

The Eleventh Hour - Global, The Atraxi want to burn Earth if Prisoner Zero doesn't surrender itself
The Beast Below - National* - A bunch of shadowey dudes are kidnapping children to help them with the star whale. Also torturing the star whale.
Victory of The Daleks - Global/Universal, Bracewell's heart power plant bomb thingy would destroy Earth. Beginnings of a new Dalek Empire.
The Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone - Universal?, An army of angels fed from a crack in time couldn't be good, and their plan was to feed on the universe right?
The Vampires of Venice - Local, The vampire fish are trying to sink Venice to create a new home for themselves.
Amy's Choice - None, it was all dreams, they were never in danger.
The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood - Personal*, Silurians are trying to stop the mining project to stop the destruction of their home, did't have plans beyond that I think.
Vincent and the Doctor - Local, The Krafayis was a threat to the populace of the town.
The Lodger - Local, The necro-Tardis was killing people who passed the house so didn't have a large area of influence.
The Pandora Opens/The Big Bang - Universal, all of time never existed.

Series 6

Spoiler

Show

A Christmas Carol - Local, 4000 people on space liner about to crash
The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon - Species?/Personal? - The Silence are controlling humanity so that they can use the space tech to make a suit to make River kill the Doctor?
The Curse of the Black Spot - Personal, The reflection dimension ship is only able to get people who are becalmed in that area.
The Doctor's Wife - Personal/Mild universal?, House is obviously a threat to our main cast, but I don't know what he planned to do once in our universe
The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People - Personal/National?, Ganger versions trying to kill reals (and vice versa), Jenny ganger may have wanted to start a ganger rebellion if she escaped?
A Good Man Goes to War - Personal, The Doctor's army tries to save Amy and her baby (having an army may make this a local threat?)

Let's Kill Hitler - Personal, River Song's poisoning of the Doctor, and the Teselecta's attempted execution of River
Night Terrors - Local, George's scared telepathy was transporting the entire block of flats in to his cupboard.
The Girl Who Waited - Personal, Hand Robots trying to "sanitise" our crew
God Complex - Personal, The beast is trapped in its prison and only a threat to people that get summoned there.
Closing time - Local/Species, Cybermen kidnapping shop assistants, stealing power from the shop so that they can convert the human race.
Wedding of River Song- Universal, Time has collapsed in on itself and is all happening at once.

Series 7 (up to A Town Called Mercy)

Spoiler

Show

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe(which was actually a present wasn't it?) - Species, Deforestation threatens to wipe out tree spirits
Asylum of the Daleks - Universal*, Insane Daleks escaping would kill even more indiscriminately than Daleks?
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship - Personal, Siluran ark is going to be blown up by missiles
A Town Called Mercy - Local, Gunslinger's siege was killing the town

I'm willing to discuss any of the judgements I have made here.
Oh and something I just realised; series 5 finale is about time never having existed, were as series 6 is all of time happening at once. Nice little reversal there

[CelestialStick]

That does raise an interesting question of who was or wasn't a companion. My working definition is that a companion is someone who shared at least part of 2 on-screen adventures with the Doctor and traveled with him on the Tardis at some point. There are some problems with that, though, particularly with some of the UNIT-era characters. Also, the BBC and a lot fans seem to acknowledge Sara Kingdom and the main guest characters from some of the Nu Who specials as companions, but it's hard to see why you'd consider, say, Astrid Peth from "Voyage of the Damned" a companion but not, say Lynda (with a "Y") from "Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways"--they were both characters that the Doctor said he would take with him, but both died before the end of the story (the same thing applies to Rita from "The God Complex"); if you count one of them, it seems that you should count the other 2 as well. (There are probably other characters that the Doctor said he'd have travel with him that didn't--not necessarily just because they died first--that I don't recall right now.) And I see even less reason to include someone like Madge from last year's Christmas Special, but some people do. And I have no idea how to handle Grace Holloway and a few other characters.

I guess ultimately it's not as important which definition of "companion" we use as which characters we liked. The Brig, Benton and Yates might not fit someone's definition of "companion," but I liked all three characters. Yates took some particularly interesting turns.

Gosh! I just now remembered the important companion I totally forgot but knew I was forgetting, the one after whom I named my first cat: Romana! She's the only companion (or at least the only one with whom I'm really familiar) who was the Doctor's equal. It was very cool to have two Time Lords (or a Time Lord and a Time Lady as they used to say back then) traveling together.

When last we saw Romana, she was staying in E-Space when the Doctor with Adric returned through the CVE to the regular universe. So she might have been spared the fate of the Time Lords in the Time War with the Daleks, and it would be cool if they brought her back. I just hope they'd get a solid actress with some acting chops and not some snarky, spoiled little brat.

Mary Tamm, the first Romana, just died in July, at the age of 62 from cancer. It's sad that she went so early, earlier even than Liz Sladen, who died last year at the age of 65. Lalla (Sarah) Ward, the second Romana, is still alive at the age of 61. She hasn't done any television since a Dr. Who special in 1993, at least not according to IMDB. I wouldn't expect her to reprise the role at 61, but if Romana lived a quiet life in E-Space it's possible that she still hasn't regenerated again.

[Tergon]

Different tastes are "I didn't care for Peter Davison" (usually from someone who started with Tom Baker) or "I prefer Tom Baker to Jon Pertwee" (also usually from someone who started with Tom Baker, not "I really liked the talentless, snot-nosed snarky bart at the Master," but then being surprised that people liked Rose probably goes a long way to explaining it.

Look, I'm not saying the original magnificently hammy bastard that the Master always acted like was anything other than brilliant, but the John Simm Master was fantastic in his own way. He was exactly as arrogant and egotistical as his old incarnations, but the new regeneration gave him a sense of humour. And what do you get when you give an arrogant, egotistical bastard a sense of humour? Pretty much the way John Simm played him. I thought it was a brilliant take on the Master.

The Doctor is a classic Trickster archetype. No weapons, no aggression, and usually no idea what's going on, but he bumbles his way into the Apocalypse, fools the bad guys into blowing themselves up, shares a jelly baby or two with the survivors, and bumbles off again into the sunset. It's a big part of his charm and his character as well as why he's so good at what he does, because everyone always underestimates him.
John Simm was the Master who took on this trait: He was an evil Trickster. He cackled, laughed, sneered, and then outwitted the Doctor. Multiple times. He defeated the Doctor, Captain Jack, and the entire world for entire year, only underestimating Martha. When he came back from the dead, he didn't even make that mistake - he tricked everyone into letting him copy himself onto every human in the world, and ultimately had the Doctor beaten until the returning Time Lords betrayed him. Say what you will about how you liked his portrayal, but he came closer to winning than any incarnation of the Master before him.

Basically after thirteen regenerations of learning that his Evil Grand Vizier archetype wasn't giving him victories, he stole the Doctor's greatest weapon by becoming a Trickster like him. He was just as hammy and smug and unmistakably evil as he's always been, but now he did it with a grin on his face and cackling with genuine delight as he watched the world burn around him.

You may not have liked it; but I loved it.

[Weezer]

I guess ultimately it's not as important which definition of "companion" we use as which characters we liked. The Brig, Benton and Yates might not fit someone's definition of "companion," but I liked all three characters. Yates took some particularly interesting turns.

Gosh! I just now remembered the important companion I totally forgot but knew I was forgetting, the one after whom I named my first cat: Romana! She's the only companion (or at least the only one with whom I'm really familiar) who was the Doctor's equal. It was very cool to have two Time Lords (or a Time Lord and a Time Lady as they used to say back then) traveling together.

When last we saw Romana, she was staying in E-Space when the Doctor with Adric returned through the CVE to the regular universe. So she might have been spared the fate of the Time Lords in the Time War with the Daleks, and it would be cool if they brought her back. I just hope they'd get a solid actress with some acting chops and not some snarky, spoiled little brat.

Mary Tamm, the first Romana, just died in July, at the age of 62 from cancer. It's sad that she went so early, earlier even than Liz Sladen, who died last year at the age of 65. Lalla (Sarah) Ward, the second Romana, is still alive at the age of 61. She hasn't done any television since a Dr. Who special in 1993, at least not according to IMDB. I wouldn't expect her to reprise the role at 61, but if Romana lived a quiet life in E-Space it's possible that she still hasn't regenerated again.

I agree, Romana is my favorite of the old-Who companions, it was so unique having someone around who was the Doctor's equal in most respects and even his superior in others, especially in many things regarding theoretical/academic knowledge, cause apparently the Doctor unsurprisingly wasn't the best student. I think she was the one who started the trend of calling out the Doctor for being bad at flying the Tardis, which earned her a special place in my heart. I loved when after she left the Doctor would wish Romana was around so she could fix something.

[NikitaDarkstar]

Look, I'm not saying the original magnificently hammy bastard that the Master always acted like was anything other than brilliant, but the John Simm Master was fantastic in his own way. He was exactly as arrogant and egotistical as his old incarnations, but the new regeneration gave him a sense of humour. And what do you get when you give an arrogant, egotistical bastard a sense of humour? Pretty much the way John Simm played him. I thought it was a brilliant take on the Master.

The Doctor is a classic Trickster archetype. No weapons, no aggression, and usually no idea what's going on, but he bumbles his way into the Apocalypse, fools the bad guys into blowing themselves up, shares a jelly baby or two with the survivors, and bumbles off again into the sunset. It's a big part of his charm and his character as well as why he's so good at what he does, because everyone always underestimates him.
John Simm was the Master who took on this trait: He was an evil Trickster. He cackled, laughed, sneered, and then outwitted the Doctor. Multiple times. He defeated the Doctor, Captain Jack, and the entire world for entire year, only underestimating Martha. When he came back from the dead, he didn't even make that mistake - he tricked everyone into letting him copy himself onto every human in the world, and ultimately had the Doctor beaten until the returning Time Lords betrayed him. Say what you will about how you liked his portrayal, but he came closer to winning than any incarnation of the Master before him.

Basically after thirteen regenerations of learning that his Evil Grand Vizier archetype wasn't giving him victories, he stole the Doctor's greatest weapon by becoming a Trickster like him. He was just as hammy and smug and unmistakably evil as he's always been, but now he did it with a grin on his face and cackling with genuine delight as he watched the world burn around him.

You may not have liked it; but I loved it.

You took the words out of my mouth. And actually I think he's going on more than 13 by now. Remember in classic Who (and in the movie that we're better of forgetting) he did have some regeneration issue since he had burned up most of the energy he needed to do it properly. Even in the season 3 finale he says that the time lords resurrected him. (I'm pretty sure he's technically somewhere on 19-20 now, I just can't find the article where I read it. :()

But yes, John Simm made an amazing Master, and he's a damn good actor! (Just check out Life on Mars for proof of that....)

[Brother Oni]

Wooo, Total Wipeout is on before Dr Who again!

[Dienekes]

I'll just add because as a talking point it's already been so well defended. The Master in this show was great, except in End of Time, that whole special needed work. I love a good manic villain and he was perfect for it, and it makes sense that the Master can have some personality changes per incarnation just like the Doctor.

[NikitaDarkstar]

I'll just add because as a talking point it's already been so well defended. The Master in this show was great, except in End of Time, that whole special needed work. I love a good manic villain and he was perfect for it, and it makes sense that the Master can have some personality changes per incarnation just like the Doctor.

As you said, it wasn't the Master in the End of Time that was the issue, it was the overall writing that needed to be looked over. And to be honest, the only reason that episode worked at all (come on, the first time you watched it it was entertaining despite the plot-holes.) was because the actors were good enough to work with what they had been given, but it's not the actors fault the writing itself was bad.

[Friv]

I'm bored right now so I thought I'd do a threat level analysis of every New Who story.

Father's Day - Local*, Reapers consume everything in sight. I'm making a guess here that the Reapers will stop at some point here.

The Doctor claimed that the Reapers would stop only when the entire Earth ceased to exist, so that makes this one Global.

Tooth and Nail - Personal?, Werewolf trying to kill people? I've only really half seen this episode so am unsure as to the plot.

The werewolves wanted to turn the Queen into a werewolf so that the British Empire would become the Empire of the Wolf, so National.

The Idiot's Lantern - Local*, The wire is trying to eat everyone's mind, she could only reach people in the area Magpie was giving tellys to right?

National again - the Wire could only originally eat Magpie's television people, but she was trying to reach the national broadcast of the coronation to eat the face of every person in England watching TV at that time.

The Shakespeare Code - Global???, What were the Carrionites' plans once released?

Obliterate humanity and use Earth as the basis for their new galactic empire. So basically global, yeah.

Voyage of the Damned - National, Starship Titanic is about to crash in to the earth causing a nuclear explosion in London

Global - the explosion would have wiped out all life on Earth.

Partners in Crime - Local, Diet pills were only given to London population.

It was meant to be national, though; the Doctor short-circuited those plans.

The Doctor's Daughter - Personal/Local?, Not really sure at all here, input wanted

I would say local; the threat was to the inhabitants of the colony ship.

The Beast Below - National* - A bunch of shadowey dudes are kidnapping children to help them with the star whale. Also torturing the star whale.

Sort of a weird one, because the Doctor failing wouldn't actually have killed anyone. It's a kind of National/Personal episode.

Amy's Choice - None, it was all dreams, they were never in danger.

Personal - I think those dreams could have killed them.

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood - Personal*, Silurians are trying to stop the mining project to stop the destruction of their home, did't have plans beyond that I think.

The evil Silurian captain wanted to conquer and eradicate humanity. Global.

[Weezer]

As you said, it wasn't the Master in the End of Time that was the issue, it was the overall writing that needed to be looked over. And to be honest, the only reason that episode worked at all (come on, the first time you watched it it was entertaining despite the plot-holes.) was because the actors were good enough to work with what they had been given, but it's not the actors fault the writing itself was bad.

I disagree, that episode was painful even the first time. Actually that whole season of specials just didn't work for me at all, the only one I vaguely liked was Waters of Mars, but ven that one had major problems.

[Cen]

Global - the explosion would have wiped out all life on Earth.

It was exagerrated - we see in 'Turn left' that it destroyed only London

[Kobold-Bard]

Now that was much better than last week.

And despite River Song, I don't think I'm going to hate next week either.

Good stuff.

[Aotrs Commander]

New episode:

Spoiler

Show

Good, solid episode, much better than last week, if, perhaps, not an outstanding one. Funny and with some nice poignment moments.

The Brig's daughter. Nice tip of the hat, I think.

...

Next week is going to be a difficult episode to watch, since preportedly it's

Spoiler

Show

Amy and Rory's (and presumably River's) last.

[Strawberries]

Now that was much better than last week.

And again, that shows how different viewers are. This was the first one of the new series that I didn't like. At all.

Spoiler

Show

Restarting people's hearts felt like a cop-out to me. Also, now, for the first time, I felt the Doctor was out of character. I mean, strange cubes begin falling all over the Earth, since when is the Doctor's first reaction "I want them to have a weakness" instead of "oooh, shiny, I wonder what they are"?

[Sunken Valley]

Review.

Power of Three

Spoiler

Show

Stuff I Liked

Spoiler

Show

The Doctor was funny and this was a very light episode, obviously prep for the end of the ponds.

Liked Kate Stewart nice reference. Zygons!

Cubes were good too

Stuff I Didn't Like

Spoiler

Show

Timeline: Rory and Amy say they have been with the Doctor 10 years. Is this in their lives or in the world? If the latter, it would be 2020 and the world would be very different, much more advanced than "Flickr and Twitter". If the former, the Ponds would look way older than they do.

I cannot believe that humanity would let the cubes in like that. They would be put away by the UN in real life.

Why did the Shakri abduct people first? I'm sure it was mentioned but I don't know why. Especially what made them take the two Williams?

That narration. Blurgh! Cheesy, so cheesy.

I also note that Amy and Rory's divorce has not been mentioned. I'l give it one week to be mentioned and then I'm gonna drop my Asylum review down to 8/10 as that was a big chunk of that ep wasted with no pay off.

Next Time

Spoiler

Show

Angel's can time transport now? Make up your mind, Moffat!

I'm gonna say it, next week will be bull. Worst Dr Who ep this season. Get ready for a big stuff I didn't like bar Sunken Fans.

Tune in this week for analysis on why the Angels should have been one shot, Long awaited criticisms of Astronaut two-parter and a sum-up of my big problem with Amy Pond

8/10.

[Soepvork]

Spoiler

Show

Angel's can time transport now? Make up your mind, Moffat!

Spoiler

Show

They always could, that was a main part of the storyline of the original Angels epside

[Kobold-Bard]

...

Stuff I Didn't Like

Spoiler

Show

Timeline: Rory and Amy say they have been with the Doctor 10 years. Is this in their lives or in the world? If the latter, it would be 2020 and the world would be very different, much more advanced than "Flickr and Twitter". If the former, the Ponds would look way older than they do.

They go with him for 7 weeks and he drops them back 1 minute after they left. They've aged 10 years faster than the Earth and the people on it by doing this.

I cannot believe that humanity would let the cubes in like that. They would be put away by the UN in real life.

Really? I could totally see that happening. There's just too many (100+ in the Pond's street alone) for them to get them all. They'd be collected as nic-nacs and ebay fodder, then if they didn't do anything they'd just become ornaments, or just something you get used to, like a bad smell locally.

Why did the Shakri abduct people first? I'm sure it was mentioned but I don't know why. Especially what made them take the two Williams?

That was not even remotely explained, nor was why the guards had messed up faces. In general the threat itself was a bit rubbish, it was the stuff before the cubes activated that I liked.

That narration. Blurgh! Cheesy, so cheesy.

Bit harsh I think, but to each their own.

I also note that Amy and Rory's divorce has not been mentioned. I'l give it one week to be mentioned and then I'm gonna drop my Asylum review down to 8/10 as that was a big chunk of that ep wasted with no pay off.

Why would it ever be mentioned again?

...

My points in blue due to being lazy with spoilers.

[NikitaDarkstar]

I disagree, that episode was painful even the first time. Actually that whole season of specials just didn't work for me at all, the only one I vaguely liked was Waters of Mars, but ven that one had major problems.

Huh. Couldn't stand Waters on Mars myself. Each to their own I guess?

[Weezer]

Huh. Couldn't stand Waters on Mars myself. Each to their own I guess?

I really only liked it because it very clearly demonstrated the Doctor's limits, which I feel is important to do from time to time. It also had the ' The Doctor. Doctor. Fun'. line, which was excellent. But overall it was a 6 or 7 out of 10, and still the best of the specials season.

[NikitaDarkstar]

I really only liked it because it very clearly demonstrated the Doctor's limits, which I feel is important to do from time to time. It also had the ' The Doctor. Doctor. Fun'. line, which was excellent. But overall it was a 6 or 7 out of 10, and still the best of the specials season.

All right I'll agree with you on that. It did make some interesting points, and
it did show the Doctor at his darkest (in my opinion), but I'd still give it a 4 or 5 if I'm feeling generous. I actually tend to put that episode lower than Fear Her.

[Dienekes]

All right I'll agree with you on that. It did make some interesting points, and
it did show the Doctor at his darkest (in my opinion), but I'd still give it a 4 or 5 if I'm feeling generous. I actually tend to put that episode lower than Fear Her.

Out of curiosity why? The monster of the week was at least vaguely intimidating. The acting was good. It had an actress from the amazing Rome tv show. And Tennent managed to pull off megalomaniac Doctor pretty well. Overall I thought it was the best of the series of movies.

[NikitaDarkstar]

Out of curiosity why? The monster of the week was at least vaguely intimidating. The acting was good. It had an actress from the amazing Rome tv show. And Tennent managed to pull off megalomaniac Doctor pretty well. Overall I thought it was the best of the series of movies.

I just found the entire premise and lead-up to the "scary" part to ridiculous to take even remotely seriously. Which ruined the rest of the episode for me. We also knew right from the start that the Doctor would in the end give in to his urge to save people which took the edge of his moral dilemma. Honestly, it's only redeeming quality for me is the "Time Lord victorious!" line, which was instant fixed with the woman killing herself instead since she was supposed to die. (It would have been more interesting if they'd actually shown us the consequences of him meddling with an event like that.)

So for me that episode fell flat on it's face.

[Thufir]

That does raise an interesting question of who was or wasn't a companion. My working definition is that a companion is someone who shared at least part of 2 on-screen adventures with the Doctor and traveled with him on the Tardis at some point. There are some problems with that, though, particularly with some of the UNIT-era characters. Also, the BBC and a lot fans seem to acknowledge Sara Kingdom and the main guest characters from some of the Nu Who specials as companions, but it's hard to see why you'd consider, say, Astrid Peth from "Voyage of the Damned" a companion but not, say Lynda (with a "Y") from "Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways"--they were both characters that the Doctor said he would take with him, but both died before the end of the story (the same thing applies to Rita from "The God Complex"); if you count one of them, it seems that you should count the other 2 as well. (There are probably other characters that the Doctor said he'd have travel with him that didn't--not necessarily just because they died first--that I don't recall right now.) And I see even less reason to include someone like Madge from last year's Christmas Special, but some people do. And I have no idea how to handle Grace Holloway and a few other characters.

Honestly, I don't think there's any real point to having a hard-and-fast rule about who is and isn't a companion. It's too hard to define, but you feel you know it when you see it. If one must look for criteria, really it's all about how the character interacts with the Doctor, the kind of assistance they render to him - e.g. Rita in God Complex I would not consider a companion, because she didn't have that kind of relationship with the Doctor, though doughtless she could have if she hadn't died.
By this, inevitably it's much harder for a one-shot character to be considered a companion if there's already a full-time companion around, but that's generally how it feels anyway, and how the stories work.

Oh and something I just realised; series 5 finale is about time never having existed, were as series 6 is all of time happening at once. Nice little reversal there

Although in the background of the series 5 finale there was some similar messed up-ness - penguins in Africa, etc. No particularly good reason why.
Also, yes, all of time was happening at once, but this was going to lead to time never having existed IIRC.

Actually that whole season of specials just didn't work for me at all, the only one I vaguely liked was Waters of Mars, but ven that one had major problems.

The specials...
The specials had some good moments, and some excellent performances. Just the overall plotting of them was somewhat dubious. Waters of Mars is the bestof them in that regard.

New episode stuff:

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Next week is going to be a difficult episode to watch, since preportedly it's Amy and Rory's (and presumably River's) last.

I could be wrong, but I would imagine it won't be River's last episode, since we already know there's much more of her story, and only so much of it can happen offscreen. If nothing else, I feel sure we'll see her again for the Fall of the Eleventh at the Fields of Trensilore when the Question is asked.

Also, now, for the first time, I felt the Doctor was out of character. I mean, strange cubes begin falling all over the Earth, since when is the Doctor's first reaction "I want them to have a weakness" instead of "oooh, shiny, I wonder what they are"?

A fair point, but usually when the Doctor looks at a new shiny thing to see what it is, he can see what it is in fairly short order. Something that unknowable is scary, especially for a man who prides himself on knowing as close to everything as Time-Lord-ly possible.
Plus, the threat was really much less significant to the quality of this episode than all the character moments. Amy and Rory's struggle between real life and Doctor-life, with Brian looking on; and the Doctor clinging to his companions even though he knows it can't last forever. Plus the Doctor's difficulties with patience, a look at the new Lethbridge-Stewart, and the Doctor reaffirming his faith in humanity to a monster from the cautionary tales of his childhood.

Why did the Shakri abduct people first? I'm sure it was mentioned but I don't know why. Especially what made them take the two Williams?

It wasn't. And given the cubes' apparent ability to scan everything, it seems unlikely they really needed a closer look.
Also, I'm pretty sure the Doctor, Amy and Rory forgot to rescue those people, with the exception of Rory's dad, and left them to die on the exploding spaceship. I'm a bit bothered about that.

That narration. Blurgh! Cheesy, so cheesy.

It was somewhat, especially the "cubed/power of three" line at the end. Nu Who in general has had some pretty bad voice-over narrations.

Angel's can time transport now? Make up your mind, Moffat!

They never weren't able to, they just don't have to all the time. This is not a problem.


Other thoughts:
I think I got through the gist of why I loved this episode with what I said to Strawberries about the character moments. The cubes were also very good at being enigmatic. Specifically great moments: Brian's diligent cube observation (in some respects, most particularly patience, he is the opposite of the Doctor), Amy accidentally marrying Henry VIII, Rory in his pants, the Doctor's burst of activity when he got bored, the Doctor playing on the Wii. The Doctor's conversation with Amy about why he keeps coming back to her and Rory.

[Weezer]

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I liked the episode, though there are some holes which have already been pointed out (why did they abduct people, and why did the Doctor simply forget everyone? He doesn't always have to save everyone, but simply forgetting wbout people? That's not him at all). The beet parts were character related, the plot was light and fluffy, but it was filled with important conversations about what it means to be a companion, the Doctor's motivations, that kind of stuff. I like how it not humanized, cause 11 isn't human at all, but Gallifreyanized the Doctor. I enjoy when the Doctor is made to be deeper than a mad man with a box who goes around fixing things (which are often things he broke in the first place), yesh that is an important part but he is more that simply that and this episode demonstrated that well. Lonely and old I think are the two best words to describe this Doctor.

[Avaris]

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That episode... was ok. The first half was far stronger than the second... so much just didn't really make sense: the minions with the cube mouths, the people on the ship, the oh so simple way everything was solved (you're too late doctor, now we'll leave you and you can easily take over our system and fix things).

I think ultimately, this should have been a two-part episode. The first half, with the cubes, working with unit to figure out what is going on, and then a climax once it is revealed that they are killing people. Second episode involves finding the orbiting ships and explanation as to who is behind everything, and the doctor realising there is something to the old fairy tales (I'm getting tochlefyne (sp?) flashbacks: this is the same basic premise). Solving the problem involves using the cubes, but is more detailed than just waving the sonic screwdriver at the control panel. With one episode, we got potential but limited execution.

Ultimately, the weakest episode of the season so far for me, but with the disclaimer that this is still the strongest season for a while (normally by the fourth episode we've had something sub-par)

[dps]

The Doctor claimed that the Reapers would stop only when the entire Earth ceased to exist, so that makes this one Global.

We don't know for sure that he was right, though. If he was mistaken, then Androgeus as it correct--the threat was local. OTOH, if the reapers were going to eat the whole world, I don't see why they'd stop there, which would bump it up to potentially universal.

Sort of a weird one, because the Doctor failing wouldn't actually have killed anyone. It's a kind of National/Personal episode.

Yeah, this is a tough one. I'd go with personal.

Personal - I think those dreams could have killed them.

I tend to agree. The Dreamlord claimed that they would die if they chose incorrectly, but then he also lied and said that one of the situations was real while the other was a dream, so he could have been lying about their lives really being in danger, too.

The evil Silurian captain wanted to conquer and eradicate humanity. Global.

Yes, but not all the Silurians were in agreement. Tough call, IMO.

[dps]

New episode comments (mostly responding to stuff already posted):

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Lots of good stuff here--good character interaction, nice that Kate turned out to be the Brig's daughter, interesting setup to the mystery of the cubes. Bit of a rushed finish, though, with a good number of things left unexplained.

RE: the UN would have gathered up all the cubes in RL: The UN in real life doesn't have anything approaching the legal power to gather up all the cubes. I doubt it does in the Whoniverse, either. Even if it does have the legal power to do that in the Whoniverse, its power to enforce that is probably still lacking--in the real world, they'd be lucky to gather up all the cubes in the plaza in front of the UN Building before people snapped them up.

RE: The Doctor and his companions not rescuing the people on the ship: I don't think that they forgot. I think that The Doctor intended to rescue them after using the sonic screwdriver to make the cubes reverse the heart attacks, and didn't realize until too late that it was going to cause an explosion. By the time he did, there wasn't time to rescue the other people--it looked like The Doctor, Amy, and Rory just barely made it out in time as it was.

[LokeyITP]

So Power of Three happened. It's the kind of ep I'm a sucker for, so enjoyed very much.

One thing I wasn't clear on...ok two:

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Why were a few people grabbed, and what was doing the grabbing? The mouth things didn't look like the ship's avatar...

[Dienekes]

So new episode.

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I actually liked this one the best so far this season. Only three things rubbed me the wrong way and they were minor.

1) Why did the aliens abduct a human specimen so early? This one is annoying because it feels like the explanation was cut out of the episode to make the conclusion happen as fast as it did.

2) The climax. Jeez, this one annoyed me as much as the end of Family of Blood, without the redeeming feature of the darkly cool punishment that the Family had. There was no build up to it, just walking up chatting a bit with Emperor Palpatine there and then waving the magic wand of everything goes back to normal. Also, as an aside, I'm positive that those who were taken out by the boxes will be brain dead or at least have completely irreparable brain damage from their time without oxygen.

3) Cubed is the power of 3 is one of the worst puns ever, of all time. It was worse than asking "Doctor Who?" repeatedly.

Other than that, it was great watching the Ponds go about their double lives and the Doctor coming to terms that his family will be leaving him. 'Cause that's what they are. Sure Rose was his clingy girlfriend, Martha was his rebound girl, and Donna was his best mate, but the Ponds were family. It was a fine episode that sets up their leaving very well.

Unfortunately the way this episode is set up it's looking more like they'll wind up dead, with all the "they will not die" bits from the Doctor and with the pair officially choosing to be with the Doctor for good.

Also, Brig's daughter! Ok I hope that girl is comfortable showing up on the show for many years.

Also, I'll agree with whoever said it above. This should have been a two-parter, the episode was running great until about midway through Palpatine's dialogue. Another episode that emphasizes the judgement aspects and maybe gives UNIT a chance to do some cool things would not have gone amiss.

[dps]

So Power of Three happened. It's the kind of ep I'm a sucker for, so enjoyed very much.

One thing I wasn't clear on...ok two:

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Why were a few people grabbed, and what was doing the grabbing? The mouth things didn't look like the ship's avatar...

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Neither were ever explained. I thing the characters with the strange mouths were humans that had been transformed for some reason, but that was just my initial impression--we were never told.