Patience is for Wimps!

Well . . . . now we now what Moffat and Company were setting us up for with their “Pond Life Omnibus” and its flappy month changes – showing snippets of the Ponds' life while The Doctor was away – we were treated to even more extended views of Any and Rory's lives both with and without The Doctor, a very interesting concept for an episode. I did more or less enjoy the story being told from Amy's perspective.

It's going to take me a while to get through all of the mess I scribbled down while watching this episode I find myself longing for the simplicity of cyborgs roaming the American West . . . anyway . . . on to . . . .

WHAT I LOVED

Brian Williams is back – what can I say – I just like the guy – he kind of finishes off the “family” of the Ponds-Williams and probably should have been introduced long ago, it's a shame we only got to see him for 2 episodes. In the 3 seasons we have seen the Ponds' the character of Brian Williams should have been brought in long ago, kind of like Wilf with Donna Noble or Rose's Mom or Martha's family. Who were all there at the beginning of each companion's time with The Doctor, but maybe that was just a Russell T. Davies concept, though I guess you could argue that the Amy/Rory/River episodes were "family" episodes.  

THE PONDS' - WILLIAMS

WHAT I LIKED

Kate Stewart – daughter of The Brig – in a very nice introduction. I do hope that she shows up occasionally – as her father did – it would be nice to keep that little bit of family continuity going and it's a nice reference to the old days. Could be a harbinger of what's to come in the 50^th Anniversary season – I hope - bu I hope they work on her wardrobe (sheesh!  those pants!).

THE BRIG'S DAUGHTER

The juxtaposition of Amy and Rory's totally mundane home life (cleaning out the fridge and doing laundry – is it really common in England for the washing machine to be in the kitchen?  I'm not sure what "washing tablets" are, don't they trust you Brits to measure out laundry detergent by yourselves???) and their life with The Doctor. The Doctor's time with the Ponds' after he got them their house was a real departure from the standard Doctor/Companion(s) dynamic where he would drop them off at home and go off on his own, could have been somewhat interesting to see him do that at some time other than Christmas – but hey, what can I say.

Brian Williams interrogating The Doctor on the fates of his traveling companions, I actually perked up at that to see how they would handle that and they handled it well.  Most have left on their own, for whatever reason, some were left behind and some did die.  I remember being in total shock when I saw the end of “Earthshock” when Adric was killed while trying to stop the spaceship of the Cybermen from crashing into Earth – The Doctor knew that the crash was the catalyst for the death of the dinosaurs on Earth, but Adric just had to try to stop it – to the best of my knowledge it's the only story to end with no music – here's a link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idEcvdL_zHA).  You'll notice one interesting thing about The Doctor in this clip.

A nice reference to The Doctor's first sppearance in Amelia Pond's kitchen and his eating Fish Fingers and Custard, doing the same twith Amy and Rory on their couch - very cool.

And evidently The Doctor invented Yorkshire Pudding!

Another old school shout out with a mention of the Zygons and their ship being under the Savoy hotel – not exactly sure why The Doctor, Amy and Rory were sitting in the snow – unless that was ash from a recently exploded Zygon spaceship – but they would never go for that twice – would they???

Using the Tower of London as a UNIT base – very cool - it was mentioned in "The Christmas Invasion".

The scene with The Doctor and Amy outside of the Tower – talking about her life and her life with him.

Brian calling out Amy and Rory for being hooked on The Doctor, it's been hinted at in the last couple of episodes, but it's true, they are hooked on their times with him, I mean who wouldn't, but they still needed down time to recuperate and act like actual himans.

The mention that they had been traveling with him, in Earth years, for 10 of them and that Amy was now writing for travel magazines, having given up her modeling career.

Introduction of the Shakri as a newvillain, since they have a place in Time Lord folklore, perhaps a replacement for the Daleks?  or the Cybermen?? Could be interesting to see them pop up from time to time in their mission to serve The Tally as intergalactic Pest Control.  Hey, there are 6 more ships out there that weren't destroyed, that we know of and the Shakri seem to move between dimensions, so they have a future. 

PRETTY SURE I DON'T LIKE THIS GUY

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

OK - I live not too far from a very busy hospital and all of my various doctors (general, ob/gyn, dermotologist) are all  there too - and I am sure that someone would have noticed a little girl having been sitting in the Emergency Room waiting room for over a month - no matter how busy it was.

OK - IF SHE LOOKED LIKE THIS SHE WOULD STAND OUT

The sappy ending, that whole part about the cubed being the power of three and all that with the soaring music and close-up of The Doctor, Rory and Amy after Brian sends them off - a little too sweet for me.

WHAT'S NEXT

Another trip to America and the end of an era . . . . . . . . . . . . 

THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS

Incinerating Intruders for Three Centuries

The year was 1870, only five years after the Civil War had split the United States in a bloody four year conflict where relatives fought on both sides and ten years before electric street lamps appeared anywhere in the United States, let alone a little out of the way western town like Mercy.   In 1870, towns like Mercy would have barely had flame torches lighting the streets and most likely the only light came from inside of whatever buildings lined the main street. Western towns in 1870 were pretty dark places after the sun went down.

Anyway, the only actual Town of Mercy I was able to find was the town of Mercy, Texas which seems to have existed in the early 1900's and became the sight of a large oil strike some years later.

So much for the history lesson – on with the review!

WHAT I LIKED

This was the 6^th episode set in the United States (“Dalek”, “Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks', “The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon” coming before), with one more to come (The Angels Take Manhattan). And what's the deal with Manhattan, we can't have an episode set in Philadelphia where maybe The Doctor is responsible for the crack in the Liberty Bell or something??? Where maybe the Doctor suggests stars to Betsy Ross to represent the new United States, maybe flies a kite with Ben Franklin or provides Edgar Allen Poe with the inspiration for “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Get on it Moffat!

Evidently The Doctor speaks horse and horses have “alternative lifestyles”, so said Susan the male horse.

Talking to Animals - Another Aspect of the Tardis Translator??

Amy - “Why would he want to kill you, unless he's met you.” Great line.

With the exception of when The Doctor was running Kahler Jex out of town to meet The Gunslinger – the soundtrack for this episode was very reminiscent of classic Western music – Murray Gold outdid himself – very nice.

Speaking of The Gunslinger, kudos to Andrew Brooke for surviving all of the prosthetics – an amazing performance considering it too 2 and a half hours to get that make-up on.

Howdy Pardner!

It was good to see that they used an actual American actor to play Sheriff Isaac, Ben Browder, whose sci-fi credits include “Farscape” and “Stargate SG1”, not too shabby.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

Wow – from the Undertaker to the metal cup of coffee, to the saloon where the piano player stops as soon as The Doctor, Amy and Rory walk in, to the Preacher, to the Doctor meeting the Gunslinger at “High Noon”, I think pretty much every Western cliché was covered. Only things missing was a bar brawl and an Indian raid.

One last Not Liking and that is that there are only 2 episodes left in this, the first section (can't call it a half – there are only 5 episodes), but it seems like in the next episode we get to see some of what has only been talked about (Rory leaving his phone charger behind perhaps??) Rory in his underwear and Rory's Dad again.

Only My Balls

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

OK – is it me or was this Chris Chibnall written episode dripping with sex and sexual innuendo??? Hey you, stop laughing, I hear you snickering at “innuendo” so stop it right this minute!

But seriously, it was like a couple of barely pubescent school boys wrote this, the only things missing was some "pull my finger" fart jokes, but it wa a pretty good story.

Between the insatiable Nefertiti, the the Great White hunter John Riddell bragging about his entertaining two dowagers while the Doctor disappeared for seven moths while on a licorice run to his suggesting a spanking over his knee for Nefertiti to Brian Williams and his (golf) balls. Criminey!

Naughty Nephi!

First, we get the VERY hot Jenna Louise Coleman last week (there was no end to all of the Dalek cooking a souffle fan art) and then this week we get Rupert Graves as Riddell and of “Sherlock” fame (YUM!) and Riann Steele (double YUM!) as Nefertiti – and then there's the scene at the very end showing Riddell and his souvenir with Nefertiti coming out of is tent locking and loading while looking even hotter.

And evidently even the protection of the Earth has been outsourced to India in 2367 AD

Anyway . . . . .

WHAT I LIKED

The Doctor puts a gang together - it's about time he had a gang, though you would think that Amy, Rory and River more or less make up a gang, but I guess that's more of a family.

The Gang's All Here!

Yet another appearance by the Silurians, nice to see them back, and Amy's mention of Homo Reptilius, a nice touch, since she has met them twice at least.

Great to see that Doctor Who can pull in movie actors with the appearances of both Mark Williams as Rory's dad and David Bradley as Solomon, both of the Harry Potter series, along with aforementioned Mr. Graves.

That the title of this episode was a riff on the American movie, “Snakes on a Plane”.

The CGI effects were pretty cool – the dinosaurs were depicted amazingly – kudos to the eggheads LOL

Rory's Dad.

Amy putting Riddell in his place as to her skills in fighting.

Brian Williams sitting in the doorway of the TARDIS and having a sandwich and some tea while looking down on the Earth – just a really great scene.

Tea Time in The Tardis

The robots.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

Yet again, the Doctor was responsible for the death of someone. Granted, it was a loathsome someone and I can totally understand why he did what he did, to more or less, though he would never admit it, avenge the Silurians who had been so evilly killed off by Solomon's robots on his command, but it is still a jarring experience that this individual who abhors weapons and even reiterated that point in speaking with Indira of the Indian Space Agency when she mentioned the missiles.

That in the future even the defense of Earth from Outer Space visitors haev been outsourced to India - 1st all of the call centers - now space defense!

The robots. I know I said I liked them and I did, when they were “metal tantrum machines” but not so much when they were ordered to kill the Triceratops, not good at all.

Metal Tantrum Machines!

That's about it for the dislikes and this review. Overall is was a nice episode, nothing profound was learned, the story was advanced to the inevitable departure of the Ponds. It was cool to see Rory's dad and their bonding under ridiculous circumstances.

Pistol Packin' Mama

Next week it's off to the American West - or a reasonable facsimile thereof - so get your boy and girl hats ans spurs ready!

This is New!

Let's start off with the “Pond Life” prequel to Season 7. It was a cute little filler (an Ood on the loo!) to introduce Season 7 that lead up to Rory leaving Amy and setting up their antagonistic feelings for each other (more on that later).

And if you want to see what I-tunes customers were treated to as a prequel to "Asylum of the Daleks", check this out:

For anyone imnterested in the ratings for "Asylum of the Daleks", it pulled in a 29.3% share wiht 6.38 million people tuned it and it was Number 1 on the iPlayer.

SAVE THE DALEKS!

WHAT I LOVED

Well, that's pretty simple. DOCTOR WHO IS BACK!!!!!

Jenna-Louise Coleman! It was really cool that there was no hint, that I know of, that she would be appearing in this episode.  She is not even listed on IMDB.com as being in this episode.  She is listed for all of the episodes from Christmas on for Season 7, but Moffat and Company totally snuck her in on this one, which in hindsight, since hers was a one set shoot where she interacted with the other actors only through video/audio hook-ups, it would have been easy to film her parts with no one outside of the show knowing.  VERY cool move Mr Moffat!

Best Line - from The Doctor - "Without a gun you’re a tricycle with a roof!"

WHAT I LIKED

A return to Skaro! The home of the Daleks, first seen in the second ever Doctor Who story, in 1963, called “The Daleks” and last seen in the 7^th Doctor episode “Remembrance of the Daleks” (in which the first flying Dalek is seen, the scene is recreated somewhat in the 9^th Doctor episode “Dalek” when the Dalek follows Rose and Adam up a flight of stairs.)

Souffle Girl!

Oswin swinging in a hammock! What's not to like there??

Eggs!  This was cute and sooooo very much a Rory scene.

It finally hit me on my second viewing of this episode what Oswin's hideaway reminded me of.  Anyone who was a fan of LOST will remember Desmond, the Scotsman who was "down the hatch" in the underground Dharma station.  This had been bothering me the first through but I just couldn't grasp what it reminded me of.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

The new logo and opening sequence. While I agree with their dumping of the (I thought unnecessary) Amy voiceover opening, which they would have had to have dumped by the Christmas episode anyway, there was no reason to re-do the opening graphics.

A bit of inconsistancy, Oswin wonders about her nightly visitors, who are obviously Daleks, if they are vampires and then later on says that, of course she knows what the Daleks sound like.

All of a sudden the Daleks have a Prime Minister and a Parliament?!?!?!?!!?  Was the Dalek Supreme's creation in World War II England responsible for this somewhat democratic version of the Daleks???   Since when was the Emperor Dalek the Prime Minister????  Was this because there was no Dalek Empire??? 

Eggs - it was funny the first time with Rory and the Daleks, Oswin all of a sudden remembering her Dalek training when The Doctor asked her where she was getting her  eggs for her souffles, that was just silly.  I know this is supposed to be a kids show, but is it really anymore???  Nothing wromng with being silly, but let's be adult about it  LOL

Zombies! The crew of the Alaska (yet another American reference) dead for a year suddenly come back to life because of some Dalek nano-technology – great visual – lame, overdone, idea. That and they had been there a year and in that year they didn't tun into Dalek-ombies???? It took the Doctor and Amy to get them cranked up? I guess The Doctor let the Nano whatsits in when he opened the hatch (eye roll).

What exactly was the problem with Amy and Rory?  We see Rory leave in "Pond Life" and then he shows up at Amy's modeling gig with divorce papers, leading me to belive that he wanted out of the marriage, which was all well and good, but then he acts like a little boy at the end when Amy calls him into the house, like she's the one who kicked him out instead of him leaving on his own.  I may have missed something in between the explosions of the Daleks blowing up the planet.

WHAT I HATED

"Oh for god's sake!"  Seriously???  Would The Doctor, who ahs had religions created based on his actions on various planets, invoke the name of the Judeo-Christian god of Earth in frustration?????  I seriously doubt that.  If he yelled out "Oh for Rassilon's sake!" I would believe that.

I am tired of Moffat, etal, messing with Doctor Who canon.  Rory died and he come sback as an Auton, only to come back as a Human because, at Amy's designing, she reacreated the Universe and brought The Doctor back -  and now the Daleks, THE FLIPPIN' DALEKS of all of his enemies, now forget him???

OK I am not alone in the loathing here.  The joke is getting old and really over used, especially after Season 6's finale where you had the head of Dorium Maldovar babbling on about the buggest question in the Universe and it turns out to be "Doctor Who?"  Then Moffat ends "Asylum" with Oswin wiping any trace of The Doctor from the Dalek databases and them all carrying on about "Doctor Who?"  It was a bit of a joke in last season's finale - to tread - no - stomp that field again is ridiculous.  OK Moffat - we get the joke - enough already.  

FINAL ANALYSIS

"Remember me Chin Boy . . . . . . ."

The question that arises here is whether throwing Jenna-Louise into the premier was a way to introduce her, the actress, to a foreign audience (i.e. us Americans and those in other countries) who is unfamiliar with her previous work or whether this was another play at a main character knowing about the end of another major character and being unable to tell them about it, which seems to be a favorite topic of Mr Moffat's. I'm not sure I want to go through any more angst with having the Doctor look on Oswin sadly, knowing she's going to die in a Dalek casing, as they travel the universe. I'd rather see them travel the universe, he with a new companion who just happens to look like the former Oswin to us, but not to him. One mention of “Chin Boy” will blow that out of the water.

OH NO!  The Dalek Nano-whatsits have gotten to Wellzy!