Doctor Who Mini-Reviews: Summary

Edmund and I have been re-watching the Doctor Who reboot from the beginning, and I wrote mini-reviews; having just finished the series, this is a little summary and analysis.

The scores I used go thus:

1. This is embarrassing.  Go away.
2. Weak.  I’m not going to try convincing my friends to watch the show based on this.
3. Average for a Doctor Who episode.
4. That was a good one!
5. One of the best ever.

I assigned the scores as I watched on a completely subjective basis; at no point until tonight did I check my math to look for trends. But now it’s time; did some seasons rank much better than others for me? I recall Series 1, 3, and 6 most fondly. Did the scores reflect this? And when I assigned my scores, did I indeed grade on the normal curve, or did I bias high or low? Let’s find out.

First, some simple statistics:

Mean	3.15
Median	3
Minimum	1
Maximum	5
Std. Dev.	0.80

This is not too bad; it means I assigned a mean score of 3.15 ± 0.80, pretty close to the target average of 3. Yay me. In fact, it means that I slightly over-scored, but not too wildly.

Putting it on a chart, it looks like my favourite eras were the year of the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), the second half of the Tenth Doctor’s career (David Tennant), and the first half of the Eleventh Doctor’s tenure (Matt Smith.)

TARDIS Wallpaper DW by Vampiric Time Lord (Tylynn Kira A.)  The weird graph is mine, obviously.

Doctor Who Mini-Reviews: Series 7 (2012)

Edmund and I have been re-watching the Doctor Who reboot from the beginning, and I’m writing mini-reviews; I post them one season at a time. The info is cribbed from Wikipedia, and I added my scores and comments.

The scores go thus:

1. This is embarrassing.  Go away.
2. Weak.  I’m not going to try convincing my friends to watch the show based on this.
3. Average for a Doctor Who episode.
4. That was a good one!
5. One of the best ever.

This one is for Part 1 of “Series 7″ of the recent collection, released in 2012 and starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams under the direction of Steven Moffat. I’ll review the second half of the series, released in 2013, as a separate post because it figures a different cast and metaplot anyway.

This is the season that achieves something I thought mathematically impossible: all of it is below average. But at least it gave me the chance to discover what, in fact, the power of 3 is: it’s the score they couldn’t reach with this writing and directing team.

No	Title	Score	Comments	Code	Episodes	Writer	Director	Original airdate
226	“Asylum of the Daleks“	1	Ugh. The only virtue of this episode was… No wait, it merely sucked. Even Jenna Coleman couldn’t help it. And the only reason Oswyn’s status may be a big reveal to the viewer is if that viewer has been distracted for the last 45 minutes, yelling: “But that’s not how the Daleks work!”		1 episode (50 mins)	Steven Moffat	Nick Hurran	1 September 2012
227	“Dinosaurs on a Spaceship“	2	The only reasons this rises to a 2 is (A) sterling, if completely underused, guest cast, and (B) the dinosaurs did look nice. How could such a cast produce such a bland episode? Oh, I see: Chris Chibnall wrote it.		1 episode	Chris Chibnall	Saul Metzstein	8 September 2012
228	“A Town Called Mercy“	2	Ooooh, a Western. What a treat. The character of Kahler-Jex was mildly interesting.		1 episode	Toby Whithouse	Saul Metzstein	15 September 2012
229	“The Power of Three“	2	Another lacklustre episode despite the presence of Jemma Redgrave and Mark Williams.		1 episode	Chris Chibnall	Douglas Mackinnon	22 September 2012
230	“The Angels Take Manhattan“	2	In this episode, the Weeping Angels have officially changed from scary to petulant, the Doctor is written as a self-centred adolescent who doesn’t deserve any of his friends, and River needs to get some self-esteem back rather than put up with this shit.		1 episode	Steven Moffat	Nick Hurran	29 September 2012
231	“The Snowmen“	1.5	Was this written by asking 30 undergrads to write two minutes each? While the mystery of Clara Oswin Oswald mildly intrigues me and I was happy to see Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax (and hear Ian McKellen), this contained some of the worst dialogue I’d heard on Doctor Who. The Doctor, in particular, gets awful, awful lines and poor Matt Smith seems at a loss for what to do with them.		Christmas special (60 mins)	Steven Moffat	Saul Metzstein	25 December 2012

Doctor Who Mini-Reviews: Series 6

Edmund and I have been re-watching the Doctor Who reboot from the beginning, and I’m writing mini-reviews; I post them one season at a time. The info is cribbed from Wikipedia, and I added my scores and comments.

The scores go thus:

1. This is embarrassing.  Go away.
2. Weak.  I’m not going to try convincing my friends to watch the show based on this.
3. Average for a Doctor Who episode.
4. That was a good one!
5. One of the best ever.

This one is for “Series 6″ of the recent collection, released in 2011 and starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams under the direction of Steven Moffat. The distinguishing feature of the series is the use on long, inter-connected story arcs rather than simple episodic format. Even the more standalone episodes contained foreshadowing or cross-references to longer plots.

No	Title	Score	Comments	Code	Episodes	Writer	Director	Original airdate
214	“The Impossible Astronaut” “Day of the Moon“	4/4	Intriguing premise, suspense, surprises, good camera work and rhythm, creative storytelling. Alas, the musical theme is now unbearably pompous.	2.1 2.2	2 episodes	Steven Moffat	Toby Haynes	23 April 2011 30 April 2011
215	“The Curse of the Black Spot“	2.5	Eh. An ordinary episode with a somewhat lacklustre plot, but we get to see Hugh “Lord Grantham” Bonneville as a pirate.	2.9	1 episode	Stephen Thompson	Jeremy Webb	7 May 2011
216	“The Doctor’s Wife“	2.5	Some emotional moments with good acting, but overall a fairly cockamamie and gratuitous plot. The writing didn’t impress me, Gaiman or not.	2.3	1 episode	Neil Gaiman	Richard Clark	14 May 2011
217	“The Rebel Flesh” “The Almost People“	4/3.5	Good idea with nice twist that was enough to let me gloss over the “mining for acid in a medieval monastery in the North Sea” concept to go along and think about disposable replicants. But lost serious points in the last few minutes of the second part when, after all the speeches, the Amy replicant is just summarily destroyed. Nice going, Doc.	2.5 2.6	2 episodes	Matthew Graham	Julian Simpson	21 May 2011 28 May 2011
218	“A Good Man Goes to War“	3.5	First half or two-thirds earn a 4 or 4.5 for the brisk rhythm, dialogue, and plot twists as well as the gratuitous but entertaining cameos. The last part is a weak 3 for excessive predictability and characters being stupid in order to obey the plot.	2.7	1 episode (50 mins)	Steven Moffat	Peter Hoar	4 June 2011
219	“Let’s Kill Hitler“	1	Oh dear god, that is so awful. It feels like it was given to Nigel the intern to write, six months after the rest of the season, to tie up loose ends. I loved River Song until then, but I profoundly hated the character in this episode – not for being a psychopath but for being—So—Fucking-Annoying. Also, death speech of the week, blah, blah, blah. With a title like that, it’s like you announced “Chasing the White Rabbit” but played “We Built This City on Rock’n’Roll.”	2.8	1 episode (50 mins)	Steven Moffat	Richard Senior	27 August 2011
220	“Night Terrors“	3	It had its moments, but dragged a little too much, not enough material to supply much in the way of plot twists. Good atmosphere, though.	2.4	1 episode	Mark Gatiss	Richard Clark	3 September 2011
221	“The Girl Who Waited“	4	I probably liked this episode more than it deserved—because the focus was on Amy and Rory. I liked the acting and the quandary. The setting had a nice creepiness to it too.	2.10	1 episode	Tom MacRae	Nick Hurran	10 September 2011
222	“The God Complex“	3	It could have been an excellent episode but somehow never quite came together, probably because the fear-fate-Minotaur connection never made sense. The Monster in the Maze idea was married at shotgun point to the idea of losing faith in the Doctor.	2.11	1 episode (50 mins)	Toby Whithouse	Nick Hurran	17 September 2011
223	“Closing Time“	3	An other episode that should have been better. Having Craig and Stormageddon—er, Alfred have adventures with the Doctor was a great idea, but the Cybermen was not. The Cybermen defeated by love was… just a bad idea. Really? These other people didn’t have families?	2.12	1 episode	Gareth Roberts	Steve Hughes	24 September 2011
224	“The Wedding of River Song“	3.5	Nice alternate timeline/timecrash ideas, and as usual I like reconnecting with old friends. A little too tidy, but I did like seeing some plots revived.	2.13	1 episode	Steven Moffat	Jeremy Webb	1 October 2011
225	“The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe“	3	Probably too sweet and charming, but I enjoyed it—especially the three miners Droxil, Ven-Garr, and Billis. The Arwell family was also pretty well cast and acted. It was odd that the trees were so expendable, though.	—	Christmas special (60 mins)	Steven Moffat	Farren Blackburn	25 December 2011

Doctor Who Mini-Reviews: Series 5

Edmund and I have been re-watching the Doctor Who reboot from the beginning, and I’m writing mini-reviews; I post them one season at a time. The info is cribbed from Wikipedia, and I added my scores and comments.

The scores go thus:

1. This is embarrassing.  Go away.
2. Weak.  I’m not going to try convincing my friends to watch the show based on this.
3. Average for a Doctor Who episode.
4. That was a good one!
5. One of the best ever.

This one is for “Series 5″ of the recent collection, released in 2010 and starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams under the direction of Steven Moffat.

While Russell T. Davies’ speciality was having other characters tell us how wonderful the Doctor is, Moffat’s is the death speech. There are many more final sacrifices than characters… The series begins well but flags mid-season with a number of good ideas poorly executed, before Moffat brings it home with a strong finish.

No	Title	Score	Comments	Code	Episodes	Writer	Director	Original airdate
203	“The Eleventh Hour“	3	A little too long, and Matt Smith is clearly feeling his way around the role, but at least the characters of Amy and Rory sink their roots. Prisoner Zero is just not that scary, though. Also, we finally reach the point where I can’t stand the new version of the musical theme, and it will keep on getting worse.	1.1	1 episode (65 mins)	Steven Moffat	Adam Smith	3 April 2010
204	“The Beast Below“	3.5	Ah, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” and false dichotomies. It would have been a pretty good episode if a few minutes had been cut; all the epiloguing was longish. Yes, we did get the analogy Amy was quite clearly making between the Star Whale and the Doctor, no need to explain it further.	1.2	1 episode	Steven Moffat	Andrew Gunn	10 April 2010
205	“Victory of the Daleks“	2	Oof. That was badly written, and I was underwhelm with both Matt Smith and Ian McNeice’s acting as the Doctor and Sir Winston Churchill respectively. Karen Gillan did a good job as Amy Pond, salvaging what she could of a crappy, crappy plot. Only the quality of the special effects set it apart from some of the worst Star Trek episodes from my youth.	1.3	1 episode	Mark Gatiss	Andrew Gunn	17 April 2010
206	“The Time of Angels” “Flesh and Stone“	3/3	Nice sets, plus I like the military clerics and I’m almost always happy to see River Song. But by over-explaining and over-exposing, this two-parter kills everything that made the Weeping Angels terrifying in “Blink.” The whole “Amy must walk around with her eyes closed” thing was too long.	1.4 1.5	2 episodes	Steven Moffat	Adam Smith	24 April 2010 1 May 2010
207	“The Vampires of Venice“	3	I’m glad to see Rory join as regular cast and I love Lucian Msamati, although he has a very limited part as Guido. Once again, the episode was too long; the always seem to stretch the suspenseful part until I get right into “Bored, now.”	1.6	1 episode (50 mins)	Toby Whithouse	Jonny Campbell	8 May 2010
208	“Amy’s Choice“	2.5	I started by liking the idea of how the two realities paralleled each other (e.g., the theme of cold) but it devolved into a fairly dull flip-flop with a predictable ending.	1.7	1 episode	Simon Nye	Catherine Morshead	15 May 2010
209	“The Hungry Earth” “Cold Blood“	3/3	I kind of like the Silurians. I also really enjoyed Dr. Nasreen Chaudhri. However, killing off Rory at this point felt sloppy, and bringing him back later in “The Pandorica Opens” would feel even sloppier, like Moffat couldn’t make up his mind about where the plot was going.	1.8 1.9	2 episodes	Chris Chibnall	Ashley Way	22 May 2010 29 May 2010
210	“Vincent and the Doctor“	3.5	I’m a sucker for art. The story is minimal, but it will actually be tied into the metaplot, I like that. Tony Curran was good as Vincent van Gogh.	1.10	1 episode	Richard Curtis	Jonny Campbell	5 June 2010
211	“The Lodger“	4	Not a terribly complex plot, but a nice story pretty well told. I liked Craig and Sophie a good bit, even through the predictable denouement.	1.11	1 episode	Gareth Roberts	Catherine Morshead	12 June 2010
212	“The Pandorica Opens” “The Big Bang“	4/3.5	“The Pandorica Opens” gets a 5 for the pre-credit sequence, a 4 for the basic idea, a 2.5 for the nonsensical plot details, and another 4 for River Song, averaging to 4. “The Big Bang” gets a 4 for the first half in the museum, and a 3 for the interminable epilogue, death speech, and artificial happy ending, averaging to 3.5	1.12 1.13	2 episodes (50 and 55 mins)	Steven Moffat	Toby Haynes	19 June 2010 26 June 2010
213	“A Christmas Carol“	4.5	This Christmas special was the best to date by a long shot. Good rhythm, good use of time travel to create a non-linear plot, good visuals, Katherine Jenkins’ beautiful voice, and Michael Gambon as the Scrooge-like character. It didn’t even waste any time in repetitions. Sadly, though, no monuments were destroyed in London.	—	Christmas special (60 mins)	Steven Moffat	Toby Haynes	25 December 2010