The Angels Take Manhatten

Here's a thing. I really don't like The Angels Take Manhattan. There I've said it.

That's not to say there are not moments in it that I don't like or that the end of Rory and Amy's time with the Doctor isn't moving. Indeed their desire to be together and their paradox creating a willingness to sacrifice their lives for each other (and perhaps the world) is the perfect ending of their story. And highlights again why I think Rory and Amy's 'divorce' really doesn't work for me in Asylum of the Daleks.

It looks great too. Cinematic. We're really filming in New York, which makes it feel much more solid. The performances are great. All of that is in its favor.

Because Rory and Amy's departure is so well done I'm willing to overlook the vomitous worship of marriage in this story as if being married somehow makes people better and more worthy. Yes, that's probably a harsh reading of the story but really how many mentions of 'that's what being married means' do we need. Yes, Mr. Moffat we get it. Marriage is a big deal. Not love itself. No, it needs to have a ring on it.

Now I'm aware here that I'm going to come across as grumpy as hell. I know there are a lot of people out there that love this story. Well, I'm sorry but I don't.

I'm not going to quibble about the Angels being metal as well as stone or the Statue of Liberty (which I did at the time). I've realized now that the implication is that the Angels are now so powerful that they've taken over New York effectively running on the battery farm of human time energy that they've created at Winter Quay - which is a genuinely nasty and rather good idea. So they can move everywhere and take over anything and the reason no one makes a big deal out of the Statue of Liberty wondering about is that the paradox flattens the battery. The Angels never got to be that powerful. They never took over the Statue of Liberty, which implies that Sam Garner (Rob David) and Grayle (Mike McShane) weren't caught up in the whole thing either.

Oh, and I love the baby Angels with their sinister giggle.

Again though this story seems to be the final emotional kicking that the Doctor has been getting through Series 7 so far. Story after story seems to have functioned a clang in a Cloister Bell of alarm for the Doctor and we get lots of talk about not letting the Doctor travel alone: from Amy in the postscript and from River in the final scenes inside the TARDIS.

I've said before with a story that sometimes a single line has the effect of a thread pulled on a jumper that the more you pull at it the more the jumper disappears. This story has one of those lines. It is River's line:  "Never Let him see the damage. And never, ever let him see you age. He doesn't like endings."

Really. You think after all we've seen of the Doctor this even vaguely rings true.  Don't let him see you age? What. Really? That's what you think the Doctor is. Indeed it echoes a line from The Power of Three where the Doctor talks about enjoying being with Amy and Rory 'fade away', which I'd forgotten about until this moment. It just all seems very un-Doctorish to me. And from the moment that line is uttered the whole story seemed to seem like a beautiful piece of music played on an out of tune piano.

Yes, I'm aware that I have taken against this story purely because it doesn't fit with how I see The Doctor's character. Could a Doctor afraid of endings have left Susan behind? Could a Doctor who can't watch people age really be The Doctor we know? I don't think so.

I feel a bit guilty for not liking this story because I know it means a lot to people. I've really liked Rory and Amy. I love Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill's performances. I just think something about this story doesn't ring true and I think that's because it is Mr. Moffat putting words into the Doctor's mouth that apply more to him. It's not the Doctor that doesn't like endings it's Mr. Moffat.

I'm also feeling a bit guilty because it seems that this story mattered a lot to Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill and that they were emotionally invested in it. I think that shows in the quality of their performances.

But this blog is about my personal reactions to stories and much as there is a lot to like about this story that a single River line undermines my whole feelings about it.

It's not a terrible story. It's entertaining and moving. It just feels unfair to the Doctor to me and I really don't like that. It's a personal thing.

Sorry.

The Power of Three

The Power of Three is a tad disappointing, although I like the central idea that an alien race might seek to invade the Earth - and then exterminate Earthlings - using our own curiosity and - in the Doctor's impassioned speech - our hope against us. They don't come in all guns blazing. They do a large scale guerrilla marketing campaign, which works very well.

There's also something rather lovely about watching the Doctor's inability to handle living an ordinary domestic life. His impatient toddler-like reaction to the lack of action by The Cubes. It's also there to throw Amy and Rory's domesticity and their 'should we stay or should we go' conundrum into sharp relief. Rory and Amy are getting used to having a life lived one day at a time and they're getting to the point of deciding to stay at home permanently.

Again though this story is a whacking great signpost to the end of the Rory and Amy story. We know that we're approaching the end of their story arc - I knew that at the time so I'm not cheating by hindsight here - and this story might as well be called: "The Quiet Sign Post of Fate". There's a lovely conversation between the Doctor and Brian Williams (Mark Williams) that is just this kind of unsubtle hints even if they are well-written and well-acted. This is topped off with Brian's last line of the episode: "Just make sure they come home safe." It's like that moment in a war film where the soldier doomed to die an early death shows photographs of the girl he's going to marry when he gets home. That moment is when his best before date pops up. The same goes for the nice little conversation between the Doctor and Amy on the banks of the Thames about the Doctor's running. It's well-played but ultimately it is another signpost. This way The Power of Three implies is doom. [Cloister Bell]

My final good thing about this episode is Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave). She's the head of UNIT now, which is a much more scientific led organization than it was back in the 80s. Or the 70s. She's also the daughter of the Brigadier. It's a nice performance from Jemma Redgrave and a nice tribute. I particularly like the Doctor's goodbye to her at the end of the story. It's a new addition to the Doctor Who mythology - note the lack of use of the word canon - and a good choice of actor.

So that's the good stuff.

There are things I don't like and two are linked: the rushed sonic screwdriver magic wand ending and the utter waste of Steven Berkoff. This story makes me realize why JNT wanted rid of the sonic screwdriver. It's too much of a cheat. And it makes the ending so rushed as to virtually be insignificant plus I fear that most of the people who had been cardiaced on Earth would be dead by the time the Doctor solves the problem even in the rushed way he chooses to do so. But obviously, that would be hideously bleak so I can understand why they didn't do it.

And then you cast Steven Berkoff as the villain and then his scenes with the Doctor are so under-stated as to virtually be a conversation between two slightly annoyed people in a library. Steven Berkoff's can go so OTT that the wallpaper peels off the walls but he can also be genuinely utterly terrifying. It's such a bloody waste of an opportunity. The Shakri - for it is he - could have been played by anyone the way it is done. Let Berkoff be Berkoff I say. But I'm probably in a minority here. New Doctor Who is much less hamtastic than old Doctor Who used to be on occasion - with the possible and unfairly highlighted performance of John Simm as The Master and I miss the villainous ham. Who is going to remember the Shakri?

Actually, this is one of the few stories where I think Matt Smith's performance doesn't quite strike true. There's too much toddler and not enough quiet power for my liking. It's one of the few Matt Smith performances that doesn't really hit the heights for me with The Curse of the Black Spot being the only other one I felt similarly about.

So basically a forgettable story with a few nice moments. It's not a bad story but it isn't there to do much else than emphasize the Doctor, Amy, and Rory relationship. Almost every episode since The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe seem to be designed to show us the dangers of the Doctor's existence and to make him feel bad.

Not one I'll rush to re-watch I must say.

A Town Called Mercy

I really enjoyed A Town Called Mercy. I think more that I did on the original watch. I think that's partly because I have been indulging in regular trips into the Western genre as part of my little project revolving around The Gunfighters and partly because it is nice to have another adventure that fits into the rather more old school Doctor Who pattern of just turning up and getting involved without dragging the baggage of a portentous story arc, although I think we are starting to see that the Pond's involvement with the Doctor is becoming more problematic. This I suspect will form part of our ongoing Series 7 stories.

The first thing I should say is that it looks fantastic. It helps that the production team went to Almeria in Spain to film it. Those of you familiar with Westerns will know that this is where a number of films, including A Fistful of Dollars were made. It doesn't look like a set or a beach in Wales it looks like the Wild Wild West.

Add to that a fantastic performance by Ben Browder as Isaac the Marshall, which really helps cement the genuine American feeling of this story.

For a chunk of this story, Isaac is more The Doctor than the actual Doctor. The Doctor gets genuinely angry in this story at Kahler-Jex's actions as a surgeon. Angry to the point of appointing himself judge, jury and - not quite - executioner. I wondered at the time whether this was the result of the Dalek nanocloud as mentioned in Asylum of the Daleks but I noticed on this watch that Amy says to the Doctor that he's behaving like this because he's been traveling on his own again. A regular thread of New Doctor Who is that the Doctor needs companions to keep him 'human'. Left to his own devices he starts slipping into a Gallifreyan fugue, which leads him to start behaving like the Time Lord Victorious than The Doctor.

I do feel though that this is another story designed to make the Doctor feel bad about his lifestyle. After all, you could blame the Doctor for Isaac's death so there's another death for him to take responsibility for. If you want to be horrible about it.

Then there is Khaler-Jex's discussions with the Doctor. The first of which effectively pushes all the Doctor'sithe weight that Khaler-Jex will carry with him after his death, also seems designed to make the Doctor introspective. There are a number of quotes designed to echo the Doctor's own issues: "War is another world. You cannot apply the politics of peace to what I did. To what any of us did." But more importantly, perhaps is the Doctor's quote at the end of another long discussion with Kahler-Jex: "You don't get to decide when and how your debt is paid". Add to that the reference to both men as 'Alien Doctors" and Khaler-Jex introducing himself as just 'The Doctor' and you can't avoid thinking this is another in a long line of stories designed to make the Doctor re-evaluate his lifestyle.

I should add here that all of these Doctor-Khaler-Jex conversations work very effectively, particularly because Adrian Scarborough does such an excellent job with the part. In some ways, Khaler-Jex is a Doctor Who staple: the scientist who thinks the end justifies the means. An echo in particular of Davros - another scientist seeking to create a victory weapon to win a long war - if you ask me, which I'm sure you won't be. But in the end, he's more than that. He's one of the few that has realized that the price they paid for their victory might not be one worth paying.

What of the Gunslinger itself. It's effectively clunky. A Doctor Whoesque take on the Terminator. A few steps away from being a Cyberman. In a way though with all its rules, it is probably not horrible enough to be utterly terrifying, but that's nice. It's a small scale story to some degree. It's one man's attempt to find revenge. In that sense, it feels a bit like Doctor Who's take not just on High Noon but echoes the themes of a trio of Clint Eastwood's Hang 'Em High, High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider. The final acts of a far larger and darker story of a nasty war on a distant world of which we know very little.

Talking of themes that I notice that we get a reference to motherhood again when Kahler-Jex says to Amy: "You're a mother, aren't you...There's kindness in your eyes. And sadness, but ferocity too." I'm not sure what we are to make of this but the continuing thread of family seems to me to be important but I'm probably utterly wrong.

I haven't said much about the three regulars because Smith, Gillan and Darvill's performances never seem to drop too much these days but a polite round of applause for the face-off between The Doctor and Amy, which is played rather nicely by Smith and Gillan, with a nice little line from Ben Browder in there too.

I really enjoyed it. Probably thought too much about it now.

Dinosaurs On A Spaceship

I like most things about Dinosaurs On A Spaceship. I think because it feels like an old school Doctor Who one-off adventure unburdened by the weight of story arcs, although I don't think it stops people looking for hints. After all The Moff's era of Doctor Who often sows little seeds throughout adventures that pay off. Eventually. Hopefully.

Having said that there is a darkness at the heart of this story that it is easy to overlook: the mass murder of Silurians by Solomon (David Bradley); Solomon's rather disgusting little speech about 'breaking' Nefertiti (Riann Steele) and - perhaps the most controversial moment in the story - the Doctor's decision to kill Solomon. There's no way around that fact. He doesn't let him die. He kills him.

People seem to think this is un-Doctorish but I'm not so sure it is. I think we've started to see the Doctor as far too saintly than his history would actually indicate. The universe is scattered with the bodies of people or creatures that the Doctor has caused to be killed. He doesn't often directly kill I'll accept that but, for me, I've never seen the Doctor as angelic. To me - as I've said in previous blogs - he's the sort of angel that gets referred to in one of my favorite speeches in Prophecy : "...always with one wing dipped in blood. Would you ever want to see an angel." One day I may write a blog at length about 'Death and The Doctor' but he's pretty ruthless when it comes to it, particularly if he's given you a warning. After all, Solomon is a mass murderer.

Yes, it might be a little surprising for new Doctor Who and actually for The Moff's era but that's partly because Solomon is an unusually black and white villain for the Moff's era of the show (even though I'm aware the story was written by Chris Chibnall). An out and out bad guy with - apparently - no redeeming features. However surprising though it is I don't think the Doctor is a character without blood on his hands. The fact that the Doctor knows this is part of the weight he carries.

I did actually think at the time that perhaps there was going to be a thread in the season that showed that the Doctor had been slightly affected by the Dalek nano-cloud - see Asylum of the Daleks - but I'm not sure if I'm right about this. We shall see.

My other issue with the story is the 'comedy' sexism and unnecessary macho flirting of Riddell (Rupert Graves), although I'm inclined to think this is deliberately done for two reasons: firstly to show how wonderful both Nefertiti and Amy are and secondly to allow Amy to comment on the flirting between Riddell and Nefertiti as an ironic commentary on the flirting that goes on so much in New Doctor Who. (Phew, that's an oddly unlovely sentence.) I should add that I like both Rupert Graves' and Riann Steele's performances. They're nicely pitched.

Even allowing for that though do we have to start with another powerful woman grappling with the Doctor. It always seems a bit of wishful thinking on behalf of various Doctor Who writers to me. It's like after years of jokes about Doctor Who fans being single/living with their mother the (male) writers of Doctor Who have turned the Doctor into a symbolic representation of Doctor Who fans. It's a kind of mass Mary Sue-ing. Or something similar.

Anyway, enough of this taking all this stuff seriously, I should stop briefly to give a small round of applause to Mark Williams who plays Brian, er, Williams aka Rory's Dad. It's a lovely understated and perfectly timed performance. I'd like to see more of Brian.

Actually, I've written this as if I didn't really like it but I really enjoyed it. It's well-acted, even if some bits and bobs of the script irritate me and it feels like fun, which is the first story that's felt like that for a while. Sometimes this self-imposed 'watch all Doctor Who in order' plan feels like a chore but often a story pops up that is just good fun. This is one of those stories and one I'd happily watch again.

Asylum of the Daleks

WARNING: This review contains massive spoilers. If you've never seen it before do not read this. There you go. Don't blame me if you get spoiled now. 

I find myself in something of a minority when it comes to Asylum of the Daleks. The first time I watched it I almost gave up on it in a fit of fan fury. It's was - and remains - the only time I have ever (almost) given up on an episode of Doctor Who. And I've watched The Mutants. And The Armageddon Factor. And Time-Flight. Well, you see what I'm saying. It's unusual. I was genuinely actually quite furious.

And yet when I watched this time I can't quite understand why I was so angry. There are still bits of it that I loathe starting with the Parliament and Prime Minister of the Daleks. I'm not going to rant here on how the whole idea of a Parliament of Daleks feels so un-Dalek as to be ludicrous. Partly because I spent a long time ranting about it at the time and have discussed all the ins and outs of the idea with fellow fans and partly because I'm aware that arguing about what a fictional race of aliens in a television series may or may not do is the way madness lies.

Oddly despite my irrational dislike of the whole Parliament of the Daleks idea, I did like the idea that the Daleks have a concept of beauty that revolves around hatred. It adds a dimension to them: "Hate is beauty, beauty hate - that is all ye know of Skaro, and all ye need to know." As the Dalek Keats once wrote. I also like the throwaway line that follows that discussion which implies that the reason the Daleks haven't killed the Doctor until now is that they find him (or the hatred of him) beautiful. It certainly explains why they talk so much about exterminating him without getting around to do it.

Then there's Rory and Amy. This story shows that they are in the process of getting divorced and it turns out that Amy threw Rory out. This turns out to revolve around the fact that Amy has discovered, since Demon's Run, that she can't have children - which is a rather dark turn to events that seems to pass unremarked. Rory has apparently always wanted children and so Amy gave him up so that he could. I'm not sure this rings true based on what we've seen of their relationship up until now. These two love each other enough with enough power to cross timelines but not enough to actually have a discussion about children. Rory's a nurse. He might have some suggestions about surrogacy or adoption. Rory's not a bastard. This has been established so it just feels utterly wrong and almost a bit arbitrary.

I'm sure it is only me that feels like this. Perhaps I'm howling at the moon about consistency in character as much as my issues about the Dalek Parliament is the kind of desire for foolish consistency that is the hobgoblin of little minds.

So there are my two main gripes.

BIG SPOILER COMING

Now what this story does do rather brilliantly is surprise us with the unannounced early appearance of soon to be companion Clara Oswald or in this case Oswin Oswald.*(Jenna Coleman). It's an admirable coup de theatre. And Jenna Coleman does a brilliant job, especially when The Moff adds an impressive extra twist to the surprise of her appearance. Poor old Oswin. My one quibble is why when the Doctor and Rory are talking to Oswin her voice is human but when the Doctor speaks to her in the final scenes it isn't. It's a bit of a cheat really but not enough of one to spoil what is probably the best couple of moments in the story.

I'm not going to rant either about the silly ending in the Dalek Parliament where the newly Doctor amnesiac Daleks don't just exterminate the Doctor on sight because he's invaded their Parliament. Even if they had had one or two shots but the TAR...OK. I'll stop now.

I've got no complaints about the performances. I think Matt Smith is as brilliant as usual. Karen Gillan - who gets better with every story in my opinion - and Arthur Darvill are great too even if I don't like their plotline in this story.

It also looks great: the hundreds of Daleks, the dusty battered Daleks in the Asylum gradually waking up and the whole snowy mountain scene. I don't think Doctor Who has ever looked so good as it does at this point in its history.

But yes for me despite enjoying it much better this time around there is something unsatisfying about this story. The Doctor Who equivalent of that disappointment you get after eating something unhealthy that you really fancied but realize isn't quite what you wanted.

As I said though I get the impression that it is just me.


*Jenna Coleman's character will end up being Clara. In this story she's Oswin Oswald. I try to avoid foreknowledge spoiling stories but in this case it's tough not to.

The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe

I loathed The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe the first time I watched it. To the point of actually 'for heffelumps saking' at the television. Watching it for the second time I'm not quite sure what drew my ire. Yes, it's not particularly great. In fact, it's probably the worst of the Christmas specials but it isn't quite as diabolical as I remembered.

Obviously, the problem with Doctor Who Christmas Specials is that the fromage factor is pushed to an almost vomitous degree. If you've got an allergy to dairy products then I'd steer clear of this.

It starts off with a sequence aboard a spaceship that involves lots of CGI, some serious explosions and possibly the most improbably ridiculous survival having unwilling exited a spaceship since the Heart of Gold happened to pick up Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. At least that escape had a vaguely sensible science-fiction explanation. The Doctor's escape is just ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. And badly realized too.

Now, I'm aware that this kind of quibbling when the whole premise of the television series I'm watching is utterly ridiculous too but this is my blog and my rules.

We then meet Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner) who is actually the hero of this tale. The Doctor is here mostly in a comedic, trouble-causing capacity (with a couple of exceptions). It's just before the outbreak of World War Two. She finds the Doctor - trapped in a spacesuit - and eventually returns him to his TARDIS via an 'amusing' sequence about her bad driving, which we'll get a callback to much later in the script. We also get to meet the whole family. Husband Reg (Alexander Armstrong), daughter Lily (Holly Earl) and son - and prototype geek - Cyril (Maurice Cole).

Skip on and Reg is flying his damaged Lancaster back home but he's lost and it's not looking good. Then we're back with Madge and she's got the dreaded telegram.* It's Christmas though and she doesn't want her children to link Christmas to their father's death so she hasn't quite got around to telling them. They're heading off to Madge's Uncle's huge country house for Christmas where the Doctor has already got there.

There are several minutes of Matt Smith being an over-caffeinated Doctor as he shows everyone around the house, which he's been busy doing up. I particularly like the Lemonade tap btw. If the Doctor can arrange a beer one for me that'd be great. But I digress.

To cut a long story short the Doctor's tried to arrange a surprise using a portal to a planet that is basically 'Planet of the Christmas Trees' and - as often happens with the Doctor's plans - it all goes horribly wrong. And the Doctor, Madge, Cyril, and Lily get caught in the crossfire of the evacuation of the 'lifeforce/souls' of the Forest and an acid rain tree destroying forest destruction plan involving the people of Androzani Major. Apparently, the trees of Androzani Major are the greatest fuel in the universe of some such hyperbole. They couldn't just be 'fuel'. They have to be the GREATEST FUEL IN THE UNIVERSE. Never knowingly small scale the Doctor Who Christmas Specials.

Except there is at the centre of all this BIG stuff a small scale story about families. Once more love is at the core of a Moff era Doctor Who story. This time it is the love of a mother - which is a thread that I suspect we won't see the last of. There's a couple of key lines about the power of women. It's almost as if The Moff wanted to show that accusations of sexism in his writing were ridiculous. So men are 'weak' and women are 'strong'. And Madge ends up being figuratively and literally the Mothership. All very metaphorical.

Phew. There's not much wrong with the performances - although I think in this story they're really pushing Matt Smith to be overly flappy. It's all mildly entertaining but once more the best moments are when Matt Smith's quiet and still. The little speech to Madge about why she's shouting at the children is lovely writing and brilliantly acted.

Holly Earl and Maurice Cole are good. Child actors can be a bit annoying but both of them avoid that, which is rather good. Although Holly Earl would have been about 18 when she played Lily so calling her a child actor is a bit unfair. Claire Skinner is also good as Madge, especially in the crying confrontation with the three employees from Androzani Major. Alexander Armstrong does what needs to be done in a part that doesn't have much too it beyond stolid British bloke.

I talked in the Let's Kill Hitler blog about glibness when it comes to Nazis in that story and actually how Doctor Who isn't really the place to have a realistic portrayal of them and there's an echo here in the way we see Reg's rescue. We've established that one of his crew is badly hurt and yet once the plane has landed it's all about the family Arwell. The rest of the plane's crew are forgotten and for some reason, that bloody annoys me. I find myself thinking that Doctor Who writers should stop using World War Two as shorthand. I dread that one of these days The Moff will decide to homage A Matter of Life and Death. At that point, I might actually throw a brick through my television screen.

I know Christmas specials have attracted a patina of extra cheesiness, generally but this one goes too far. It's like swimming in a sea of melting cheese. The Doctor Who equivalent of fondue.


*Actually I think one of the reasons the World War Two stuff annoys me is that I know my Grandma got one of those 'Missing Presumed Dead' telegrams. She was lucky and they eventually found my Grandad badly wounded and in hospital in Wolverhampton. This might not have skewed my reaction to the story but I propose it as a possibility.

The Wedding of River Song

So Series Six comes to an end with The Wedding of River Song. Most of the threads left lying throughout the rest of the series are twisted together so that we can finally see how the Doctor escapes his fixed point in time death in Utah. Unless this is the final episode of Doctor Who ever. Except obviously, it isn't. So he's clearly got to escape.

Initially, we think it is River's refusal to actually kill the Doctor that saves him. Except her decision to not go through with it causes time to collapse. Everything is happening on Earth at the same time. There are Romans waiting at traffic lights, steam trains running through the Gherkin (for reasons I'm unsure of) and Churchill - who is the Holy Roman Emperor natch - knows about downloads. The Doctor needs to die. Then you start to think that Amy and River have come up with a cunning plan to save him but in the end, the Doctor saves himself. He's been thinking ahead. Hurrah.

Of course, the Doctor doesn't die. I had theories about the Flesh Doctor being the get out - and I'm sure a line was thrown into The Almost People as a deliberate Red Herring (although I could be wrong) - but in the end, the Doctor comes up with another solution.

It's nicely written. I like the fact that the first part of the story is made up of the Doctor trying to avoid his fate and investigating why the Silence wants him dead. It's only when the Doctor is told of the Brigadier's death (in a short but rather sweet little tribute to Nicholas Courtney) makes him realize that time is catching up with him.

This is all done rather nicely through flashbacks as the Doctor tries to explain what is happening to Churchill. It's when we realize that the Silence are here already that things slip into the 'present'. It's all rather timey-wimey.*

Fast forward to the end via the re-introduction of Amy, Rory and River plus Madam Kovarian and the Silence.

The re-introduction of Amy is nicely done a little misdirection here and a nice little bit in the train between her and the Doctor.

Then there's some fun in a pyramid. A battle. Amy does something rather unpleasant to Madam Kovarian. It's actually a rather good moment. It would almost seem uncharacteristic of Amy if she wasn't given a couple of sentences which nicely explains her quiet anger. I quite like it. It seems a real response to an impossible situation. Rory gets to show his courage and general Roryness.

Then River Song gets to explain their plan to which the Doctor's response is rather short and cold. Then River Song gets married. And everything is re-set. The Doctor dies. Then we get a coda explaining how he doesn't. Or didn't. The Doctor's taking a step back out of the limelight. He's got too big. The combination of the shocks he's gone through since A Good Man Goes To War has led to this moment. Perhaps he's hoping his apparent death will hold off his final moments on Trenzelore.

So with all this explanation of the plot, I'm clearly avoiding actually talking about what I think of the episode. It's a delaying tactic because whilst it's all very clever and exciting I found myself feeling a bit unbothered by the end of it. It's all clever-clever. It's well-acted and the actual wedding moment is nicely done but it feels unusually lacking an emotional centre. For me.

Perhaps that's just me. After a run of stories about love and sacrifice this one just feels a bit like it is missing something at its centre. Is it because this is the first of those stories where intellectual overwhelms the emotional. There are so many threads to tie up, so much to deal with and so many questions to be answered that the heart of the story seems to be missing.

Who knew I'd ever criticize a new Doctor Who story for lacking emotional oomph but it just never clicked for me. It does the job of wrapping up the season though whilst leaving us one or two unanswered questions to take us through to the end of the Eleventh Doctor's era.

So actually I like it quite a lot even with my concerns. Good, but no cigar. As Churchill never said.