And with that, the Thirteenth Doctor's era has come to a close. It's easy for regeneration stories to be overshadowed by the programme's future - understandable given the show's constant change and renewal - but suffice it to say that The Power of the Doctor makes for a fitting conclusion to this era of the programme. Kicking things off with a heist on a space train, we're reintroduced to the Cybermasters, returning from The Timeless Children back in Series 12. It's good to see them return, even if their ultimate roles in the narrative serve mainly as cannon fodder more than anything else. Their Cyber-converted planet, which I'd speculated to Gallifrey, was a nice idea even if it served as a backdrop to the events unfolding rather than playing a significant role. Quite why Ashad and his Cyber Warriors were brought back, other than fan popularity, I'm not sure. An off-hand comment about the Master cloning Ashad doesn't quite resolve the character'...
Agents of SHIELD started off as a fun, enjoyable spin-off from the Marvel films dealing with monster-of-the-week formulas to build interesting and complex characters, while also setting up arcs that would carry through the series that would be built up and concluded at a later date. This was something simple and I was happy with it. However, towards the end of Season One the show became more focused on the arcs, lost a lot of the fun and began to feel like one continuous story building up the characters. We get to Season Two though, and a lot of the character building that made Season One so great is now lost. Agent May is still lacking in actual background; Skye magically turns from being the likeable newbie to SHIELD with a mysterious background to a badass SHIELD veteran with a mysterious background over the course of a few months; Simmons is still the same person she was at the beginning of Season One, only without Fitz; Ward is still a bad guy who thinks he's a good guy; a...
Doctor Who Christmas specials have certainly been a mixed bag over the years. Few have truly been bad, but almost all have been mediocre to 'just about bearable'. I was uncertain about this special. I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised, I was expecting something disappointing and I also was promised something surprising...I was really underwhelmed overall. I can't call Last Christmas bad at all, but its flaws are plain to see, making it difficult to just love it despite its flaws (as I can for such episodes as Asylum of the Daleks), and I just feel so underwhelmed and little fed up at the end of the episode. The big selling point of the episode was whether Clara would stay into Series 9, and I feel that this episode was re-written in some way so that she did. Clara's role felt rather small in the story as a whole, and the character of Shona felt like perfect companion material. In fact, I actually thought Shona would join the TARDIS at the end! It would be nice t...
Comments
Post a Comment