The Witch's Familar [spoilers]

Sunday 27 September 2015

This week we were at home for the full Doctor Who watching experience.  Having watched it, we weren't sure what to make of it, so watched it again.

I'm still not sure what to make of it.  There were some good bits:

• Missy's pointy stick
• The Doctor's entrance, with cup of tea
• Clara reprising (sort of) her Oswin role from Asylum of the Daleks
• Missy channelling Michael Caine at the end of the Italian Job - I think she even sounded a bit cockney.

But I found the Doctor and Davros scenes dragged on a bit, and I'm not convinced that if the Daleks had rebuilt Skaro since the Time War they would have had time for their sewers to get in quite such a mess...

But the biggest no-no was the sunglasses.  The campaign to bring back the screwdriver starts here.

And so it begins...The Magician's Apprentice

Saturday 26 September

Fortunately the TV in our B&B worked last Saturday, so we were able to see the The Magician's Apprentice in all its glory.  And the wifi also worked, so we were able to watch it again on iPlayer immediately afterwards.  None of which stopped us from watching it again on iPlayer on our TV when we got home on Monday.

My colleague who likes Doctor Who and always discusses developments with me, mentioned on Tuesday that he supposed I hadn't seen it yet, having been away.  When I explained that I had in fact seen it 3 times already, he looked at me a bit oddly and started to back out of the office.

Anyway, cut to the chase. It's back, big surprise (never mind).  And with an epic that references a story from 40 years ago. Hopefully, this approach will work better than it did for Attack of the Cybermen.

As it's only the first half of a two-parter, I can't pass judgement yet, but things I like so far:

• Colony Sarff - a nest of snakes in a dress. What's not to like? "We are Colony Sarff.  We bring...harm."
• The Doctor's anachronistic entrance
• Missy.  I'm still having trouble reconciling this as the same character as that played by Roger Delgado, but Michelle Gomez's 'Scary Poppins' portrayal is brilliant.

Things I'm not so sure about:

• Hand mines.  Interesting idea, but how do they work? What is the eye for, if they are buried in the ground?  I can't help feeling that this is just a pun on 'landmines' that seemed funny on paper.
• UNIT getting the PM to call Clara at work.  Really?
• Invisible planets.

Only a couple more hours to find out how it ends.

It's coming back

18 September 2015

Well, the Doctor is about to return...and am I ready? No. We picked this weekend for a short break.

This is not the first time this has happened. We managed to be at a country house hotel near Rye in April 2005 when the series returned after its enforced sabbatical. If there hadn't been a functioning a TV in the room, I would have been in dead trouble.

The following year, disaster struck when we found that our holiday in Sorrento meant that we would miss Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. When we got home, catching up on Doctor Who was the first priority after slinging our dirty washing in the machine.

But aside from that, and the time we were in Ashgabat when the 2012 Christmas Special was on, we usually manage to be somewhere with a TV where we can see the Doctor. We watched the God Complex in a soulless hotel in Coventry, which was quite scary.

So tomorrow we will be sitting down in our B&B in Douglas to find out what exactly Missy is up to.