doctor who

Doctor Who does Western (for the first time in a long time) and it's pretty good. Not quite hitting the heights, but a lot better than last week. In essence it's a morality tale, like many Westerns I suppose. Seeking to define the good guys and bad guys with some surprising twists.

This is a dense story that defies a quick summary. Read the Doctor Who Wiki article for the outline. There are so many themes: morality, justice, good vs evil, redemption all interwoven.

A very ordinary episode built around a frankly absurd title. It had the feel of "designed by committee". As if they tried to come up with a cool idea, fill it with lots of amusing characters and mash it all together. The end result was very disappointing.

The series resumes with the Doctor still dead in the eyes of most. But there are those who hope. Somehow a hooded woman got a message to the Doctor and lured him to Skaro. The Doctor realises it's a trap, she turns into a dalek and he is captured.

On Earth we discover Amy and Rory completing their divorce before also being captured (separately) by the Daleks. They all wake up on a ship containing the Prime Minister and the Parliament of the Daleks.

A solid, but not spectacular Christmas special, loosely based on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, although in truth there were only a few similarities. The Doctor crashes to Earth (literally) and is helped by Madge Arwell. He re-pays the favour three years later (her time).

An action- and information-packed series finale that wrapped up many, but certainly not all, loose ends from the past couple of series. A pretty good episode all up and one that foreshadows a lot that's ahead.

A reasonable episode that sees the return of Craig Owens and the Cybermen (and even a Cybermat). If anything though, the focus is on the Doctor and his coming death. Many loose ends are tied up and all is set for the season finale.

A clever episode, but one that didn't really manage to fill a full 40 minutes. The premise was solid and the solution clever, but it needed a bit more I feel. And to cap it all off, it was farewell to Amy and Rory.

The TARDIS is drawn to a hotel. The Doctor determines it is a replica but cannot divine its purpose. Other people are also there; somehow transported from their daily lives. They know that each room contains someone's fear and that there is a room for everyone. And there's a monster on the loose killing them one by one.

A powerful episode, including a veritable tour de force from Karen Gillan playing an older version of Amy, which sees Rory and Amy separated for a long period yet again and finishes with a terrible choice for Rory.

The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to Apalapacia, where a simple mix-up results in Amy entering a different, faster time-stream to Rory and the Doctor. The Doctor eventually figures out what is going on and manages to crash through to Amy's time-stream. Unfortunately Amy has had to wait 36 years, has aged visibly and now hates the Doctor.

A dark, spooky episode with a happy ending centred on the love of a father for his son. Overall not too bad, but a bit of an interruption to the flow of the last two episodes.

A little boy in his bedroom wishes for someone to save him from the monsters. Somehow this message finds it way through the time vortex to the Doctor's psychic paper (is there nothing it cannot do?) and he decides to make a house call.

A fast-paced, zany, humorous, almost slapstick episode with some new information about River Song and the Doctor gets us going again after a mid-season break. The story is okay, but at the end, after the relentless pace, you're left a little bewildered.