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chicafrom3In which Thirteen finally encounters a Dalek, Ryan deals with his dad, Graham gets left behind, and Yaz gets to use her police skills at least a little.
I liked it! There was one scene I aggressively Did Not Like (the Doctor calling UNIT - it was unnecessary and it felt mean-spirited towards fans of UNIT/Kate, and also kind of stupid. With UNIT's extensive experience in dealing with alien invasions of Earth, they're going to get shut down because it's been a few months since the last one? No) but otherwise I really enjoyed it. I was a little worried, going in, about how they were going to balance the Dalek plotline with the long-since-spoiled Ryan and his dad plotline, but I thought it worked very well.
The Doctor's smug little "ring any bells?" when she told the Dalek who she was was fab. And I always like these one-on-one Doctor&Dalek stories; I think when you get too many Daleks in the room they lose a bit of their effectiveness, they feel a little cheaper and less scary. I liked the patched-together-from-scrap redesign, too, although I'm not totally sure yet how I feel about how much of the episode it spent out of its casing. Part of me really liked that inversion of expectations (we tend to think of the Daleks as being their casing), and part of me thought it didn't totally work. I think I need to rewatch.
Aaron was surprisingly enjoyable, for being Ryan's deadbeat dad. I'm not saying I want him around full-time, but for a one-ep companion he worked well, and I got a big kick out of his extended reaction to the TARDIS.
(I also really liked Lin and Mitch, and would like to see them come back, please. Still doing archaeology but now also fighting aliens. Big Finish spinoff?)
Graham's annoyance at being abandoned was fun, and I wish Yaz got more to do but she still got some good moments, especially using her police skills to get Mich and Lin to leave them to investigate.
Eight stars out of ten!
(Also, the intro scene where the Doctor's apparently been taking the gang around to rank New Year's days: DELIGHTFUL.)
I liked it! There was one scene I aggressively Did Not Like (the Doctor calling UNIT - it was unnecessary and it felt mean-spirited towards fans of UNIT/Kate, and also kind of stupid. With UNIT's extensive experience in dealing with alien invasions of Earth, they're going to get shut down because it's been a few months since the last one? No) but otherwise I really enjoyed it. I was a little worried, going in, about how they were going to balance the Dalek plotline with the long-since-spoiled Ryan and his dad plotline, but I thought it worked very well.
The Doctor's smug little "ring any bells?" when she told the Dalek who she was was fab. And I always like these one-on-one Doctor&Dalek stories; I think when you get too many Daleks in the room they lose a bit of their effectiveness, they feel a little cheaper and less scary. I liked the patched-together-from-scrap redesign, too, although I'm not totally sure yet how I feel about how much of the episode it spent out of its casing. Part of me really liked that inversion of expectations (we tend to think of the Daleks as being their casing), and part of me thought it didn't totally work. I think I need to rewatch.
Aaron was surprisingly enjoyable, for being Ryan's deadbeat dad. I'm not saying I want him around full-time, but for a one-ep companion he worked well, and I got a big kick out of his extended reaction to the TARDIS.
(I also really liked Lin and Mitch, and would like to see them come back, please. Still doing archaeology but now also fighting aliens. Big Finish spinoff?)
Graham's annoyance at being abandoned was fun, and I wish Yaz got more to do but she still got some good moments, especially using her police skills to get Mich and Lin to leave them to investigate.
Eight stars out of ten!
(Also, the intro scene where the Doctor's apparently been taking the gang around to rank New Year's days: DELIGHTFUL.)
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