As the TARDIS crew battle the Silence, there are more shocks and surprises in store! Who is the eye-patch woman? Who is the little girl? What are the Silence up to? We discuss all the latest twists and developments in our latest commentary!
This edition’s commentators: Caleb, Swithun and Peter, plus guest appearance from Aled.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:10 — 31.5MB)
Inconsequential, thy name is ‘The Curse Of The Black Spot’.
If ever a stand alone episode has suffered from the excessive momentum of its predecessors this was it. Whatever followed the massive cliffhanger from last week was always going to be a little bit of a let down, so instead of explaining anything, we’re just moving on. All those questions that we have are to be put to one side for a little bit as we get a lighter, less ongoing-plot heavy episode instead.
This is very much Doctor Who by the numbers. That’s not to say it’s a bad episode. It’s a pretty good episode, with one or two really good ideas, and an intriguing narrative. It’s just that it was exactly what you might expect from Doctor Who. There was no effort made to make it more than your standard Doctor Who, no twists, just your monster of the week time again! There’s pirates, and a mermaid, and a spaceship and everything. This is totally what Doctor Who is all about.
The latest series of Doctor Who kicks off with the show travelling to America. The Doctor, Amy, Rory and River come together to discover what the world has forgotten about the events of 1969, but only after a deadly encounter with an impossible astronaut. We discuss all the twists and turns in our commentary!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:24 — 28.2MB)
Wow. If last week left me reeling with just how they could possibly square the opening ten minutes then this one has totally blown apart any theories, thoughts or expectations that I might have built up over the previous 40 minutes.
It’s almost impossible to describe how excited I am about that.
For a long time Doctor Who has been a monster of the week piece. Word is there are two types of series. There are your monster of the week style series, like Doctor Who under RTD, where each week the villain is introduced and wrapped up in one. Think of your Scooby Doo’s, your early Smallville or Buffy. Great episodes could be thrown in but there’s no through line. Characters may develop, there may be consequences, but the plot of that monster doesn’t follow through over a series in an important way. What happens in that episode may be referenced, the villain may pop up again but there won’t be anything in that episode that you need to have watched in order to understand what happens next week, or in the season finale.
The Impossible Astronaut, or ‘Silence in the White House’, starts off Season 6 of Doctor Who in the most ridiculously explosive way imaginable. In the run up to this series two things have been vigorously advertised; it’s American credentials (simultaneous broadcast with America, shot on location in America, set in a quintessentially American locale of the White House, featuring the American space programme) and that one character would die in the first episode.
Now, if you’ve ever seen any Sci-Fi at all, you’ll know how that works. One character will die means it’s a hoax or a dream or a clone, or there’s a handy hand lying around to siphon off regeneration energy into*. The character will come back, or a clone of them will, or their body will be possessed by a primal force, or there will be an alternate reality version of them appearing soon, who’s left handed or has a beard or something. What it never means is that that person is gone.
What are your overall impressions so far?
Aled: Good, I’ve enjoyed all the episodes, and there’s been a decent mix of Moffat scariness and general Doctor Who bonkers-ness. I like the continuity of the cracks in time appearing in most episodes, though whether they’re good or not will depend on the finale.
Peter: Not the seismic shift in tone I’d been expecting; despite a welcome increase in the more overt fantasy elements, the show often seems reluctant to leave its comfort zone and Moffat seems to deliberately ape RTD’s style at times. But we’ve also been offered tantalising glimpses of something fresh and different and I hope we see more progress in this direction as the series continues. Most importantly, Moffat has made the show interesting again! Hoorah!