Episode Review: The Eleventh Hour

 The Eleventh Hour is an episode from series 5 featuring the first appearances of Amy, Rory and the first proper episode with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor. Easter 2010, Steven Moffat has just taken the helm of the best sci-fi show ever. How does he start his tenure? With a trip to the countryside of course.

 Firstly, I love that Doctor Who moved away from London to get the companions, with the previous companions all being Londoners. Similarly, I think it's great that the Doctor met a young Amy before meeting older Amy. This episode sets up mystery about the whole of Amy's time in the TARDIS; mysteries like - why doesn't Amy remember the alien invasions of previous years?

 To the episode itself. It's great to see the Doctor having to sort something out in a limited time, without his two beloved toys. The Doctor himself says, "No Sonic! No TARDIS!" before saying the a very cringey line, "Who DA Man?" Amy is also brilliant in this episode. After meeting the Doctor again, she is angry, upset but most of all, happy! She is secretly so pleased that her imaginary friend was real, this is reflected in her excitement to fly away with the Doctor at the end.

 My favourite line of the episode: "I'm the Doctor. Basically, run."

The Day of the Doctor: What to Expect

With the 50th anniversary special getting closer and closer, I take a look at what the special episode will bring. So, sit back and read a relatively spoiler-free preview. 

The Time War

 Yes, it's been coming hasn't it. Throughout the revived series we have had glimpses and snippets of the Time War but finally we will find out the truth. The Time War story should fit perfectly with John Hurt's Doctor who looks to be a very dark and mysterious. The Episode should tell the story of what happened in the years when the Doctor was away. So, the Time War means...

Daleks

 Of course. The Daleks had to make an appearance. The greatest foe of not only the Doctor, but the Time Lords. The Daleks were getting rather tedious through series 2-5 but Mark Gatiss' "Victory of the Daleks" and the Moff's "Asylum of the Daleks" revived them and made the creatures deadlier than ever before.

The Zygons

 A rather odd choice for the special. The Zygons have only been seen once before on Doctor Who in the 1975 story "Terror of the Zygons". The Zygons are shape-shifting creatures that escaped to Earth in the days of the Fourth Doctor. David Tennant has said that they are his favourite monsters to ever have featured on the show.

A Celebration with a Dark Storyline

 Steven Moffat is so brilliant that he'll be able to deliver an awesome celebration episode with an epic story. Since the loss of Amy and Rory, Matt Smith's Doctor has grown darker by the episode and as he ends his tenure and Peter Capaldi's reign begins. Expect secrets. Expect loss, death and sorrow.

U.N.I.T.

 It has been revealed that the Unified Intelligence Taskforce and Kate Stewart will be making a return for the first time since "The Power of Three". U.N.I.T. are rumoured to be featured in the scene where the Doctor floats down to Trafalgar Square - clinging to the TARDIS. 

And Finally...

Queen Elizabeth I

 We know there's something between the Doctor and Liz I ever since we saw her alarming entrance at the end of series 3 episode "The Shakespeare Code". A younger version of her will be portrayed by one of the stars of hit comedy "Gavin and Stacey", Joanna Page.

So there we have it. Whatever happens, this episode will be awesome.

Know The Companion: Martha Jones

 

Fact File

Companion of: Tenth Doctor

Origins: London

First Appearance: Smith and Jones (2006)

Aliases: Samantha Jones, Greyhound 6, The Woman Who Walked The Earth

Parents: Francine and Clive Jones

Finest Hour: Last of the Time Lords

 

Martha is often overlooked by fans when asked who there favourite companion is. Martha was always going to have a hard job replacing Rose but I think she did it very well and I was happy to see her return in Torchwood and later, Doctor Who (Twice!).

 

Adventures With The Doctor

 Martha first met the Doctor at the Royal Hope Hospital when it was stolen and taken to the moon by the Judoon Platoon to extract the Plasmavore from the establishment. Martha helped the Doctor save everybody so they could return home. After this, the Doctor promised her one trip - they went to 1599 to meet William Shakespeare and save him from some rather nasty Carrionites. The Doctor then took her to the future - to New Earth; here she witnessed a traffic jam longer than the one on the M6 on the last week of summer and the death of the Face of Boe. On the way home they stopped off in Manhattan, 1930, to all but destroy the Cult of Skaro.

 Back on Earth, the duo went to Professor Lazarus' experiment and witnessed him 'change what it meant to be human'. Lazarus' plan failed though and he ended up a monster that was stopped by some rather rubbish organ playing by the Doctor. After weeks of speculation, Martha became the Doctor's companion and they travelled to save a crew from falling into the sun in "42". The Doctor and Martha then had to hide in 1917 to escape the Family of Blood, in doing so the Doctor had to become human and Martha was left on her own. The pair then got trapped in the 1960s - zapped back by the Weeping Angels but were saved by Sally Sparrow.

 Martha met Captain Jack for the first time in "Utopia" and they formed an amazing friendship as she later joined his Torchwood team. They evaded the future-kind but the TARDIS was stolen by the Master, leaving them with only Jack's vortex manipulator. The gang then went home to England where the mysterious Harold Saxon, the new PM, turned out to be the Master. Martha's family was taken, so was the Doctor and Jack. So, she walked the Earth, spreading an idea about the Doctor to stop the Master's plans. After the ordeal, Martha left the Doctor because she couldn't travel with him anymore because she needed to help her family. She later joined Torchwood, followed by U.N.I.T. and appeared in three more episodes of Who: "The Sontaron Strategem/ The Poison Sky", "The Stolen Earth/ Journey's End" and briefly in "The End of Time".

SORRY!

 



 

I'm so sorry for not posting for ages! I have been busy with the start of term and everything so...

 

 

Here's what's coming up so, so soon:

 - Day of the Doctor: What to Expect

 - Know the Companion: Martha

 - Eleventh Hour Episode Review

 - What Makes the Silence So Intriguing?

 

That is coming up but for now I can only offer my apologies. SORRY!

I enclosed THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR poster.

To download click here

50th Anniversary Title and Length Revealed... then taken down!

 Today the Title and total length of the 50th Anniversary special episode was revealed and then taken down by the BBC. The Title will be 'The Day of the Doctor ' and will run for 75 minutes.

 The deleted article read:

The BBC has announced a raft of programmes to mark the 50th anniversary of the first episode of Doctor Who.
A 75-minute special called The Day Of The Doctor will star the soon-to-leave Matt Smith and David Tennant.
Smith said: “Hope you all enjoy. There’s lots more coming your way.”
Other highlights include a BBC Two lecture by Professor Brian Cox on the science behind the hit show and the drama An Adventure In Space and Time, written by Mark Gatiss.
The one-off programme stars David Bradley, of the Harry Potter films, as William Hartnell – who was the first Doctor in 1963.
BBC Four will introduce new audiences to Hartnell, with a re-run of the first ever story. The four episodes are being shown in a restored format, not previously broadcast in the UK.
BBC Two’s flagship arts programme The Culture Show is to present Me, You and Doctor Who, with lifelong fan Matthew Sweet exploring the cultural significance of the BBC’s longest running TV drama.
A 90-minute documentary on BBC Radio 2 will ask “Who Is The Doctor?” – using newly-recorded interviews and exclusive archive material to find an answer – while BBC Three will be home to several commissions.
The anniversary episode sees the return of the Daleks For those less familiar with the show, Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide will provide a handy primer.
Danny Cohen, Director BBC Television said: “It’s an astonishing achievement for a drama to reach its 50th anniversary.
“I’d like to thank every person – on both sides of the camera – who has been involved with its creative journey over so many years.”
Smith has already started filming his final scenes as the Doctor, which are due to air in this year’s Christmas episode. His replacement, Scots actor Peter Capaldi, was announced in August.
Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer on Doctor Who said: “50 years has turned Doctor Who from a television show into a cultural landmark. Personally I can’t wait to see what it becomes after a hundred.”

Know The Companion: Rose Tyler

 

Fact file

Companion of: Ninth and Tenth Doctor

Origins: The Powell Estate

First Appearance: Rose (2005)

Aliases: Bad Wolf, Dame Rose of the Powell Estate

Parents: Pete and Jackie Tyler

Finest Hour: Bad Wolf

 

Rose is a fan's favourite and is widely regarded as 'The' companion for the new era of Doctor Who. Rose used to work in a department store, she had a very brief encounter with the Doctor there - she was told to run before he blew up the whole building.

 

Adventures with the Ninth Doctor

 After successfully defeating the autons, the Doctor invited Rose to travel the universe with him; at first she declined but then changed her mind and went off with him.

 Together they travelled to the End of the World and to Victorian times to meet Charles Dickens before returning to London in her own time where she had been missing for a year. Whilst in London, the Doctor and Rose had to fight off the Slitheen in Downing Street. They moved on quickly, stopping a surviving Dalek and visiting Satellite 5 to stop the Jagrafess. Afterwards, Rose requested a visit to the day when her father, Pete, died. Rose stopped her father's death from happening, creating the Reapers - pterodactyl like creatures that killed innocent humans. Pete saved the day though, jumping in front of a car to reverse what had happened. They continued their adventures, saving the gas mask people in the Blitz, picking up Captain Jack Harkness along the way, and capturing a surviving Slitheen to put to justice.

 In Bad Wolf  the Doctor, Rose and Jack where blasted into Game Shows - Rose was vaporised in a horror edition of  'The Weakest Link'. It turned out that she had been teleported to the Dalek fleet where she met the Emperor. The episode ended with the Doctor and Jack flying straight at the Dalek ship. In The Parting of the Ways Rose was rescued by the Doctor and Jack before being taken back to Satellite 5 before being transported home. Rose went to great lengths to get back to the Doctor, she absorbed the time vortex and got back to him before she destroyed all the Daleks. But the power was too much for her, she began to burn; the Doctor took all the power, forcing his regeneration. 

 

Adventures with the Tenth Doctor

 She continued her adventures with the Doctor's next incarnation: stopping the Sycorax, the cat sisters at New Earth, helping Queen Victoria with a werewolf before being knighted, meeting Sarah Jane Smith at a school and defeating clockwork fighters in the 51st and 18th centuries. Their travels took them to a parallel universe where Rose met a different version of her father, parallel Pete, and trapped Cybermen in factories all over the country. They left Rose's boyfriend, Mickey, behind in the parallel universe before visiting coronation England, a far away space station orbiting a black hole, when the Ood made their first appearance and helped the Isolis at the 2012 Olympics. They returned to 21st century London to find strange Ghosts, occupying the Earth. The people behind the Ghost's were Torchwood and in fact they weren't Ghosts, they were Cybermen. The metal monsters took control and looked like they were going to upgrade the Universe before the Cult of Skaro arrived, a group of four Daleks - the most imaginative ever created. The two foes fought in an epic battle before the Doctor, with the help of his parallel friends, sucking them into the void. Rose ended up trapped in the parallel world after trying to stay behind - sealing them off from the Doctor forever.

 

Rose's Return

 At the end of series 4, Rose returned to help the Doctor, Donna, Martha, Captain Jack and Sarah Jane fight off Davros and the Daleks. She ran across collapsing worlds to find the Doctor, on the way meeting Donna and helping her put the past back to the way it should've been. When she finally met the Doctor again they were captured and taken to the Dalek crucible where the human Doctor and the Doctor-Donna saved them and destroyed the Daleks. Rose was taken back to the parallel world where she would live with the human doctor, to make him better.

 

The 50th Anniversary

 Rose and the Tenth Doctor shall return on the 23rd of November.

 

 Coming soon:

 Know The Companion: Martha

 Why We Need Two-Parters

 Eleventh Hour Episode Review

BBC Three to air 'Doctor Who Greatest Moments' Show

 

 

Excerpt from Digital Spy:

 

 BBC Three is planning to air a show celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who. The digital station is thought to be putting together a "greatest moments"-style programme, with comments from fans of the series. Comedian Tom Craine will take part in the special. He announced on his website: 

 "Delighted that I'll be appearing as a guest on a forthcoming BBC3 show celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who. Wouldn't put it past me to have a few stern words to say about the Daleks."

The show will air as part of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary celebrations in November alongside a feature-length episode and a docu-drama "An Adventure In Space And Time" created by Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss.