tv

Another dark episode with a killer plot twist at the end. This ending, explaining a couple of threads, almost overshadows what's a pretty good episode. The humans and the gangers eventually reconcile with the exception of Jennifer. The Doctor engineers an escape for those that survive. But we're left asking, what's the story with Amy?

Brilliant, utterly brilliant. After last week's poor effort, this week's episode was superb. The TARDIS personified. Like all great ideas, it seems so obvious. So why didn't anyone think of it before.

A disappointing, weak episode. The story line and setting had some potential, but was let down by plot holes, so-so story-telling and ill-defined characters.

Steven Moffat seems determined the leave us with nothing but questions in this episode which wraps up a two-part storyline, but hints at so much more. The Silence are revealed to the Doctor and he realises he's been warned about them. Their defeat (on Earth at least) is very clever, but almost a sideshow compared to all the hints and suggestions about what is to come.

The list of questions is quite long:

After a marketing blitz like no other and the very sad passing of Elizabeth Sladen, the Doctor is back. The stated intention of this episode was to improve the series and to introduce a new, scary monster, The Silent. For mine, the episode failed on both counts. There was little new here. It wasn't a bad episode and there many little things that will no doubt play out over the series. But it was a bit of a let down after all the pre-publicity. Perhaps that was the problem. Without it, it would have been just fine?

After waiting less than a day since the original broadcast on the BBC, the Doctor returns to our screens on Boxing Day with a clever retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Amy and Rory are on their honeymoon on a spaceship which gets into trouble. They send a distress signal to the Doctor who duly arrives. He quickly finds the solution to their problem only to find that the device he needs to use to save them is isomorphically locked to a bitter Kazran Sardick who declines to help.

The series finale, while ultimately a pretty good episode, left me feeling a little underwhelmed by the great escape from the previous episode's predicament. On the whole though, a solid, upbeat finish to the season.

The escape from the Pandorica was almost trivial. It relied on some time-travel and paradoxes (perhaps justifiable in a collapsing universe) and the Doctor was able to save himself. But I expected something more after the brilliant setup.

Quite possibly the best cliff-hanger ever! This is the first part of a two-part end-of-series episode. It has the hallmarks of recent series-enders, ie. big, but without going over the top (into space opera territory). River Song is back as she foretold in Flesh and Stone with a warning that leads River, Amy and the Doctor to the Pandorica. But what is it? A prison for the most-feared warrior of all time?

An unusual episode that focuses on the Doctor (Amy being almost entirely absent) living as a human. He rents a flat (hence The Lodger) while investigating why the TARDIS can't materialise (trapping Amy in the future). There's humour, a love story, the Doctor playing football and another reference to the cracks.