Before the Flood

10 October 2015

We were actually at home to watch Before the Flood -  a very timey-wimey episode, where the Doctor goes back in time to try to prevent the events of last week's episode from happening.  Sometimes the Doctor can change history, sometimes he can't. (See Father's Day, The Waters of Mars, Fires of Pompeii, The Wedding of River Song etc.) This time the TARDIS did her best to stop him.

Fortunately the Doctor came up with a way of faking it, through a very Blink-like paradox.

Good things about this episode were:

• The sheer creepiness (the bit where Cass is being stalked by the ghost would definitely have given my 10 year old self nightmares - no wonder it is on at such a late time).
• O'Donnell's 'bigger on the inside' excitement
• The Doctor playing Beethoven's Fifth on an electric guitar and segueing into a rock version of the theme tune. (Can we keep that for a while, please?)

Less good things were:

• The Fisher King, who was essentially a (big) man in a rubber suit. 
• The co-ordinates, which are still rubbish.

On the whole, though, a pretty good effort.

May 2005: mixed reactions

Saturday 7 May 2005

This week’s episode [The Long Game] was good, though I seem to be in a minority with this opinion.  Simon Pegg’s character reminded me very much of one of my colleagues…

Saturday 14 May 2005

Well, I absolutely hated Father’s Day.  Way too much emotional baggage, and there was something not quite convincing about the way the CGI monsters moved – as if the church was made of metal and their feet were magnetic.   The vase reminded me of the one that my parents brought me as a present from Bulgaria, that doesn’t hold water.  Rather like the plot of this episode.

Saturday 21 May 2005

Now The Empty Child really was chilling, despite the obvious disadvantage of being broadcast on a sunny afternoon.  I can imagine a lot of parents of small children are going to get very tired of the “Are you my mummy?” line very soon.

I’m not entirely sure about the barrage balloon flight over London, which looked a bit fake to me, but three cheers for Captain Jack (swoon!).

Saturday 28 May 2005

Truly inspired dialogue – especially the boys’ toys rivalry between Captain Jack and the Doctor. What’s wrong with a sonic screwdriver, anyway? I could have done with one that weekend when I was trying to assemble the TARDIS video cabinet. Even Richard Wilson got some good lines (to the lady who found herself with two legs after being resigned to a future with only one “there is a war on – is it possible you miscounted?”