Wow. It’s all I can say. A Good man goes to War left me speechless and my mind on overload. Which is not a good thing when its 12:30 at night and you want to go to sleep. There are lots of things to say about this episode and its revelation. So let’s jump in.
Firstly Steven Moffatt has crafted a great story. It was clear the episode was building up to the big reveal about River Song at the end. But it was still enjoyable. It moved a long at a terrific pace and rarely did it need to pause to allow you to catch up.
I did find the build up to the Doctor’s reveal a little to long for my taste. It took 20 minutes before the Doctor revelled himself and then it was not that surprising. It was nice to see how the Doctor has accumulated a great amount of people who are in his debt. A nice touch was the death of the Sontaron nurse.
The set looked fantastic and gave a great look. Military installations are by their very nature, boring places to look at. However Demon’s run looked great. I also liked the Headless Monks, and they did look a bit gruesome. Which is great.
The main cast were all on fine form and it was nice to see Arthur Darvil’s Rory taking a leading role in the episode. Alex Kingston is always on form as River/Melody. The guest cast were great
There are not many things wrong with this episode as it fulfilled all of my expectations. However, I will give a word of caution. We got reappearances from Danny Boy (Victory of the Daleks) and Captain Every (Curse of the Black Spot) to help move the story on. I don’t mind a character from the past occasionally pop up. But for a few seconds, its hardly seems worth it. It was something that Russell T Davis was fond of doing (journey’s end and Last of the Time Lords) and I hope it does not become too much of a norm.
Though I have to admit I did enjoy the appearances of the Cyberships from the invasion in the opening sequence.
There is of course one major problem with this episode. The fact I have to wait until September to find out what happens next.
10 out of 10.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Friday, 3 June 2011
Pushing towards the finale
Well that's set us up nicely hasn't it? Turns out Amy hasn't been real for, well, we don't know how long yet. Plus the real Amy is actually pregnant and about to give birth under the the watchful gaze of the creepy eyepatch lady.
It was a creepy and unnerving twist to end what was otherwise a two-part story that didn't quite hit too many highs. Especially creepy when we learnt that the Doctor engineered the whole visit to try to out Amy as a fake.
Still, just like my fellow reviewer, you have to feel that this twist totally overshadowed the events the came before.
As with last week there was plenty to like about The Almost People with the moral intrigue of the gangers, the mystery over which Doctor was which and the strong performance of Raquel Cassidy to add depth to the guest cast.
Once again though, those elements weren't really glued together with a plot that was particularly memorable. Effectively the whole episode was spent running about and lacked the suspense that its constituent parts warranted.
Still, luckily for all involved it was rescued by the cliffhanger ending and leaves everyone looking forwards rather than back at pretty average fare. Who is River Song? Where is Amy? How long has she not been the real Amy? It has been a series of questions so far - now, at last, we're about to get some answers.
7/10
It was a creepy and unnerving twist to end what was otherwise a two-part story that didn't quite hit too many highs. Especially creepy when we learnt that the Doctor engineered the whole visit to try to out Amy as a fake.
Still, just like my fellow reviewer, you have to feel that this twist totally overshadowed the events the came before.
As with last week there was plenty to like about The Almost People with the moral intrigue of the gangers, the mystery over which Doctor was which and the strong performance of Raquel Cassidy to add depth to the guest cast.
Once again though, those elements weren't really glued together with a plot that was particularly memorable. Effectively the whole episode was spent running about and lacked the suspense that its constituent parts warranted.
Still, luckily for all involved it was rescued by the cliffhanger ending and leaves everyone looking forwards rather than back at pretty average fare. Who is River Song? Where is Amy? How long has she not been the real Amy? It has been a series of questions so far - now, at last, we're about to get some answers.
7/10
Spoilt by the ending.
So we ended Saturday night’s episode on an amazing cliff hanger. Amy is not really Amy, and is now about to give birth. I’m starting with cliff hanger first, because it changes the episode.
The Almost People is going to be reviewed and rated by the ending. I’ll talk about the cliff hanger itself, later on, but I feel that the cliff hanger changes the story. The Almost People, like the Rebel Flesh, suffers from a poor story.
Last week, in my review, I talked about how the story feels bity. It suffered because instead of flowing from one scene to the next, it jumps, with large leaps. We don’t get to feel the story evolve and grow.
This week the story is better, were treated to a more emotional resolution. With the Doctor, teaching the Gangers and the humans to live in harmony. Its nice to see emotional response from characters. I have discussed with my fellow reviwer about how some stories suffer from stock characters. Planet of the Ood is a good example of this. Here we see our characters, whether human or ganger, being human. Crying, looking forward to their kids birthday and so…
There are many good things to praise with the story. Matthew Graham’s deciding to make two Doctor and deal with the complicated issue of racism was a superb choice. We love Amy, she can’t put a foot wrong, but here she did. However, it was clear that the Doctor would swap shoes to make Amy learn about herself.
The character of Jen is, however, a negative side to this story. She, for no apparent reason, decides to go on a murderous, killing all humans, rampage. Her motives are clear, but how she came to them is not. The rest of the flesh are portrayed as being confused. They want to be treated as nothing more than people. However, Jen, from the onset, is portrayed as spoiling for a fight.
Matt Smith, having to play two doctors, was a fine performance. You couldn’t work out which was the ‘fake’ Doctor and which one was real. That, I suspect, was down to the Director deliberately not showing you his shoes. It was also nice to hear the Doctor speak some of his old lines as well.
I praised the production team for this episode, and I want to do it again. They have chosen perfect locations and got the tone of the episodes right.
So the cliff hanger was brilliant. There is no doubt about it. We expect the story to wrap up nicely with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory leaving them behind in the Tardis, then we go and get this game changer.
I love this cliff hanger, its brilliant and its has been often in my mind over the last week. That is a problem. It has overshadowed the preceding 40 minutes in such a way, that I can barely remember the story. That, to me, is a problem.
So all in all, if I exclude the cliff hanger, this was a disappointing episode. I give the story,
6/10
And the two parter as a whole
6/10
Lets see what next week brings.
The Almost People is going to be reviewed and rated by the ending. I’ll talk about the cliff hanger itself, later on, but I feel that the cliff hanger changes the story. The Almost People, like the Rebel Flesh, suffers from a poor story.
Last week, in my review, I talked about how the story feels bity. It suffered because instead of flowing from one scene to the next, it jumps, with large leaps. We don’t get to feel the story evolve and grow.
This week the story is better, were treated to a more emotional resolution. With the Doctor, teaching the Gangers and the humans to live in harmony. Its nice to see emotional response from characters. I have discussed with my fellow reviwer about how some stories suffer from stock characters. Planet of the Ood is a good example of this. Here we see our characters, whether human or ganger, being human. Crying, looking forward to their kids birthday and so…
There are many good things to praise with the story. Matthew Graham’s deciding to make two Doctor and deal with the complicated issue of racism was a superb choice. We love Amy, she can’t put a foot wrong, but here she did. However, it was clear that the Doctor would swap shoes to make Amy learn about herself.
The character of Jen is, however, a negative side to this story. She, for no apparent reason, decides to go on a murderous, killing all humans, rampage. Her motives are clear, but how she came to them is not. The rest of the flesh are portrayed as being confused. They want to be treated as nothing more than people. However, Jen, from the onset, is portrayed as spoiling for a fight.
Matt Smith, having to play two doctors, was a fine performance. You couldn’t work out which was the ‘fake’ Doctor and which one was real. That, I suspect, was down to the Director deliberately not showing you his shoes. It was also nice to hear the Doctor speak some of his old lines as well.
I praised the production team for this episode, and I want to do it again. They have chosen perfect locations and got the tone of the episodes right.
So the cliff hanger was brilliant. There is no doubt about it. We expect the story to wrap up nicely with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory leaving them behind in the Tardis, then we go and get this game changer.
I love this cliff hanger, its brilliant and its has been often in my mind over the last week. That is a problem. It has overshadowed the preceding 40 minutes in such a way, that I can barely remember the story. That, to me, is a problem.
So all in all, if I exclude the cliff hanger, this was a disappointing episode. I give the story,
6/10
And the two parter as a whole
6/10
Lets see what next week brings.
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