A Good Man Goes to War
Sorry, I do spoilerz. Deal with it.
So, Moffat threw money around with abandon. A cybership with big explodey effect? London 1888? Then a battle scene on a building site? Okay, well not all of the money made it up on the screen.
The one shame was the big interior of Demon's Run, which in spite of the shadowy lighting, still ended up looking like a warehouse space in Cardiff. If there's a theme to this series, it is that Michael Pickwoad is all at sea trying to do the futurey stuff. He's ambitious and tries to do things simply and cheaply, relying a lot on lighting (see also the medical bay in Black Spot) but he can't quite pull it off.
I though was Moffat cheeky taking a moment to expand the universe with spinoff characters. I'm sure we are going to see lots of fanfic about Madame Vastra and Jenny, though Strax the penitent battle-nurse was the more interesting character for me.
Although I'd anticipated the big reveal about Doctor Song's identity, I was surprised how well it worked. The Doctor's reaction to it was priceless and a testament to Matt Smith's mad skillz and charm.
However, there was a lot of stuff that made no sense to me. Why did River stay away until the end? And does the Doctor have a long way still to fall?
The most interesting idea was that of the name 'Doctor' changing its meaning across cultures. Maybe that's the fall River refers to. Having spent the RTD era building up the Doctor as the nemesis of evil, it is fun to invert that and make him the enemy of all the universe.
So, Moffat threw money around with abandon. A cybership with big explodey effect? London 1888? Then a battle scene on a building site? Okay, well not all of the money made it up on the screen.
The one shame was the big interior of Demon's Run, which in spite of the shadowy lighting, still ended up looking like a warehouse space in Cardiff. If there's a theme to this series, it is that Michael Pickwoad is all at sea trying to do the futurey stuff. He's ambitious and tries to do things simply and cheaply, relying a lot on lighting (see also the medical bay in Black Spot) but he can't quite pull it off.
I though was Moffat cheeky taking a moment to expand the universe with spinoff characters. I'm sure we are going to see lots of fanfic about Madame Vastra and Jenny, though Strax the penitent battle-nurse was the more interesting character for me.
Although I'd anticipated the big reveal about Doctor Song's identity, I was surprised how well it worked. The Doctor's reaction to it was priceless and a testament to Matt Smith's mad skillz and charm.
However, there was a lot of stuff that made no sense to me. Why did River stay away until the end? And does the Doctor have a long way still to fall?
The most interesting idea was that of the name 'Doctor' changing its meaning across cultures. Maybe that's the fall River refers to. Having spent the RTD era building up the Doctor as the nemesis of evil, it is fun to invert that and make him the enemy of all the universe.