OJ's TV Review - Doctor Who series 9

It's been ten years since Doctor Who has been back on our TVs!? It can't be!

Series 9 gives us Peter Capaldi's second run as The Doctor and what a run it was. Even the pre-title sequence in the first episode can give a long-term fan a mind-blow. The opening two parter was an interesting one and although was unusual gave us some great appearances and easter eggs.
   As the series went on I noticed that there wasn't really a continuing story-arc, you know that little scene they usually put in every episode that has a pay-off in the finale, there wasn't really one here. I really liked that; there are maybe one or two lines of dialogue you can look back on now as a foreshadow but all in all each story was self contained. I enjoyed there being a lot more two-parters as well, it allowed for a more paced plot rather than a rushed ending. All-in-all the majority of episodes I really enjoyed, making series 9 one of the best series since 2005.
   Of course there were bad episodes, in my opinion The Girl Who Died, Sleep No More, and The Husbands of River Song were just dreadful. I know they have their fans but for me personally, I disliked a good portion of each of them.
   In the end I think series 9 was one of the best series so far and Peter Capaldi is still an excellent Doctor, Jenna Coleman was good, as always, despite my dislike for the character and I rather enjoyed the finale, which is unsual for me and Doctor Who.

9/10

OJ's TV Review - Doctor Who: Last Christmas

Moffat, you haven't redeemed yourself yet, but your on the right path.

So the end of 2014 brings us Peter Capaldi's first Doctor Who Christmas special. It's about a group of scientists trapped on a polar base in the North Pole because of weird alien creatures. To start, I love anything with a premise like that so I knew I was probably going to enjoy this; and I did!
   'Last Christmas' was a really good, solid episode. The plot was really engaging and smart, it had some real good suspense and creepiness. The feel of the episode definitely had vibes from the Alien film (which is acknowledged) and also things like The Thing and even Inception I'm all on board for that and loved the callbacks, so plot wise it was one of the best, except maybe towards the end it started to cross the line but not too much.
   For the characters, this was a good episode, the people on the base seemed realistic and normal, The Doctor has definitely settled into the role and had some great lines of dialogue with Clara who I don't really like but she was good in the episode. And of course Santa Clause himself and his elves. Now, I don't celebrate Christmas but seeing Santa and the Doctor interact was one of the funniest things this year, They did a few back and forth banter which was great and there are definitely some things about Santa we don't know, so maybe a return...? In the end I thoroughly enjoyed the episode and look forward to what series 9 has in store.

9/10

OJ's TV Review - Doctor Who series 8

Attack eyebrows.

So here we are, the start of another 50 years. Last time we saw the Doctor he turned into an intense older man with a Scottish accent. Of course, it was Peter Capaldi; let's start off with the acting and actors then. Capaldi obviously is a brilliant actor, it took some time to get used to his personality but he came out with some cracking lines and I like his outfit. Jenna Coleman is also really great at acting, I still don't really like her character much but she did some powerful scenes which could easily win an award. We also got some new faces such as Samuel Anderson as Danny Pink which I liked and he was a good character, very realistic and fun to watch; Michelle Gomez played the wonderfully mysterious Missy who was fantastic in her character, a truly evil villain. So on an acting par, Series 8 was great (even the child actors actually).
    Let's get into the plots and episodes now.' Deep Breath' started us off and in my opinion, it wasn't great; I personally dislike the Paternoster Gang so that didn't help and most of it felt like the script was still being written for Matt Smith. After that however, it was one of the best series of Doctor Who since the revival, I really enjoyed the majority of the episodes, 'Robot of Sherwood' was funny, 'Listen' was scary, and 'Mummy on the Orient Express' was my favourite. So yeah, even the series arc that stretches over the episodes was good.
    Eventually we got to the finale and wow, it got dark quick, the subject matter even got a few complaints and was quite a sensitive subject; I thought the plot itself was good and I enjoyed it except some parts of 'Death in Heaven' which I'm not comfortable with. As a whole though the 34th series of Doctor Who was good beginning for a new chapter.

8/10

OJ's TV Review - Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor

Matt Smith battle's Daleks, Cybermen and his own demise in this years Christmas special!

So after four years of the Eleventh Doctor, his life eventually comes to an end. It's his 13th regeneration too so this really is the end for him. I quite enjoyed the episode actually, very entertaining, funny, and some sadness to balance it out.The Time of the Doctor also had the big job of wrapping up all the story arcs since series 5. Although I liked how they explained the whole arc of the Silence and the cracks, that was a nice surprise and the explanations were reasonable; I wasn't too fond of how they explained the individual story arcs from each series; the Pandorica thing from series 5 was a mere throw-away line, the entire series 6 drag was two lines of diaouge and series 7 was hardly mentioned! All in all though it was  great episode, a good send off to Matt, even though the last two I think were more emotional, this was really good with a cool cameo and then SUDDENLY: Capaldi. Yes, number 12 (or 13, or 14, depends on your view) appeared within a second and really only had 36 seconds of excellent screen time. I give this episode: TIME WELL SPENT.

OJ's Review - Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor

#savetheday

Here it is! We've waited 50 years and finally we have the amazing anniversary special.
At the end of series 7 I was weary about the John Hurt thing but now I'm OK with it and it worked really well for the story, other things I was scared about turned out to be fine too, all in all I loved the story and how it went, from beginning to end I enjoyed the whole thing. The humor was great too, the way the three Doctors bounce off each other and make fun of each other is great. The references are great, I mean not just the Zygons from the classic series but little words, sentences and pictures you can spot which you know exactly what they're talking about. The special effects were great too, some of the best I've seen in Doctor Who and just the whole way they did it, using the opening titles from the 60's to having the actors names up in the beginning like a movie and even using Who music from the Russel T. Davis era. I think The Day of the Doctor is... AWESOMNESS

OJ's TV Review - An Adventure in Space and Time

An amazing docudrama about an amazing show.

An Adventure in Space and Time is written by Mark Gatiss whom Whovians will know to be part of the Doctor Who family as writer and actor in the show itself; it stars David Bradley playing William Hartnell, and wow it's a really good performance. He does a brilliant job as the first Doctor and all the actors do really look like the people they're playing and act like them too! And when that happens its really exciting to see them recreate iconic scenes, so all of that is really fun to see. Also the story itself is really interesting, I mean I know its dramatized a bit, but this really shows the struggle to get Doctor Who successful and through the hard work Verity Lambert and all that she does. Its also really cool to spot the cameos and references, when two people are talking and in the background you see an old Dalek or an original alien from the 60's episodes. So that was really fun and who'd have ever thought you'd see a Cyberman smoke? All in all this docudrama was out of this world (pun intended) and certainly gets 10 out of 10: AWESOMENESS.

OJ's TV Review - Doctor Who series 7

Enough with the mid-series breaks!!!

Well, well; series 7; the last series before the big 50th Anniversary - and it sure sets itself up. It starts off with The Doctor still visiting Amy and Rory Pond every now and again and taking them on a few adventures along with some new characters and some old. And then, after the emotional parting from his two companions he delves into the mystery of an impossible woman he keeps meeting (no, not River Song). So as far as the entire series as a whole goes, the Clara Oswald story-arc started off quite interesting but by early 2013 you just were tired of waiting; the individual episodes themselves, well, personally it was a bit of roller coaster; series 7 had some pretty good plots but also some really bad ones. Some of the episodes I myself didn't like were  Asylum of the Daleks, The Power of Three, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, and Nightmare in Silver. I just felt really disappointed after watching those, especially Nightmare as it sounded and looked really good but the execution just felt choppy and confusing. I did like some of the better episodes though like A Town Called Mercy, The Angels Take Manhattan, The Snowmen, and Hide, which I enjoyed a lot. Now, for the finale; you may know me and Doctor Who finales haven't always seen eye-to-eye, the last 'good' finale I think was in 2006's series 2; so now this year I got to watch The Name of The Doctor - hmmm, yes; I actually enjoyed a good part of this episode; the throwbacks, the settings, the plot, but then you get to the final scenes and now after one big mystery is solved and you're out of breath from all the thinking you had to do, Steven Moffat slaps you round the face with John Hurt. That's all I'm going to say so I just hope on the anniversary I will be pleasantly surprised - so that's my thoughts and my next Doctor Who review will be on, well, 23rd November I suppose!

OJ Reviewing: Doctor Who series 6

A mid-series break!.........................Oh goodie.

 Series 6 is all about one thing: RIVER SONG - that's right, the used-to-be-good mysterious person who knew the Doctor who has now become an annoying story arc that will confuse many and infuriate more. Which category am I? The former. The series was okay but every episode just had something linked to River's life, I liked her reference to Series 4 in the first episode but she did get a little annoying, another story arc (which still links to River) is the strange eye-patch woman in the first half and then the Doctor's death in the second. 'A Good Man Goes to War' is a really good episode and I love all the creatures and past characters but then what followed was just a complete episode about what the entire first half was all about - anyone who hadn't seen Doctor Who before would see that and not have clue whats going on and would probably never watch it again. So I prefered the first half to the last but even that was a bit choppy. Now for the finale, oh yes, 'The Wedding of River Song' was yet again another complex conundrum about a parallel universe that had been made in one second, it wasn't as bad as others but I still wasn't keen because that would mean the Teselecta can fake regeneration? Anyway the series very bad dip in Doctor Who and that's without the pointlessness of the Christmas special which is to horrid to review.

OJ Reviewing: Doctor Who series 5

Well thank you very much for the hits I had on my last review, I'm glad you liked it.

  Series five introduces Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as the new TARDIS crew. The first episode 'The Eleventh Hour' was very good and is considered the best of Smith's stories. It had the Doctor meet a little girl called Amelia and then the Doctor comes back years later making Amy Pond the only companion to know the Doctor since being a child. It was interesting with the story arc through the series and it was fun to see each crack. I liked many episodes in this series ans the monsters have been great along with quite a lot of emotion that is quite popular in DW since good ol' Series 4. 'The Pandorica Opens' is an absolute awesome episode with loads of aliens, references and even made the Cybermen scary again; the cliffhanger was great and you desperately wanted to see the next one which...... was a disappointment -  big one. You know I haven't liked the finale's of Doctor Who since series 2 but 'The Big Bang' has to be the ultimate worst, it felt like a quick getaway from the one before and I still don't get the whole "rebooting the universe" thing so if you could explain that to me I would be very thankful. So apart from the very last episode it was really great and the Christmas special was the first one that wasn't set on Earth and I didn't mind that too much but anyway, I like Matt Smith and he is my favourite incarnation.

OJ Reviewing: Doctor Who 2009 Specials

I'm reviewing 3 special episodes of Doctor Who leading up to David Tennants demise!......

Planet of the Dead

Doctor Who's first ever Easter special but you can't really tell it is apart from the chocolate egg at the start. I like this episode because it brings in UNIT a lot more than they have done, they brought back a character from series 4 and a new hilarious character played by the funny Lee Evans. The plot to this story was really good about wormholes and deserts and metal stingrays. The Tritovites were awesome to and was kinda sad they had to die (oh, erm, SPOILERS,). Now the companion stand-in is some snobby know-it-all who is a thief. Meh, not really sure about that and she got a bit annoying; there were some funny parts in it though and I love the concept of the stingrays so all round I'd say it's quite a good episode.

 

The Waters of Mars

Yes! One of the best ever episodes and my second most favourite of NuWho. It's on Mars, it has a robot, and water is the enemy! Such a cool premise, the plot is great and I love the humour, K-9 reference, Dalek tie-in and most defiantly: the villains. The water virus is awesome, the creatures with the cracked mouths are awesomely freaky and I love watching this episode.

The End of Time

Right at the end of the whole Tennant era it boils down to a bit of radiation - but for a really good cause because its what the Doctor does best, and that is sacrifice himself for others. The emotion was very good and I liked most of the plot and I'm glad they brought alien-looking aliens into it. The thing I don't like: Raising the Master, hmm, how? I think that is very impossible, wouldn't the Time Lords do that to everyone? Anyway, that's all I didn't like but I did think it was funny that it takes forever for him to die; it was great to see all the old companions and creatures and stuff and I imagine that his final scene made people cry. So a great episode and an awesome end to the tenth Doctor.

  Now for the era of the Smith!

OJ Reviewing: Doctor Who series 4

Ha Ha! The return of the Tate!

One of the best companions ever, Donna returns after being in a Christmas special and now she's a companion and she is absolutely great with David Tenneant. They delivered some real great lines and scenes. The episodes were really good and my 3rd most favourite NuWho episode is in this series; they had monsters never seen before and would never have even heard of, which were great. It brings in the mysterious River Song where she is not annoying and confusing and the Doctor witnesses her death. I like to call this series "Blast from the Past" because lots of past things come back such as: Donna, Rose Tyler, Ood, Martha Jones, UNIT, Sontarans, Davros, flashbacks to series 1! I really enjoyed the references to and it was building up really well and I loved The Stolen Earth and then......... I'm sorry, but, yes, I didn't like the ending; it was okay but I don't think that the meta-crisis Time Lord/Human hybrids was the best idea, it would probably be confusing to some but I guess they didn't want Rose to be lonely, so apart from that the series was great and I love the monsters and some scenes have really good emotion and awesome plots.

OJ Reviewing: Doctor Who series 3

Is it just me, or is this series a little darker?

 Hmmm. My line above is a reference to the plots, it just felt like it had a darker tone, like The Family of Blood and then the Dalek-Human Hybrid. I liked it all but it just felt they upped the target audience a little, which I enjoyed because it also made it that little more scary and fun. I watched Blink for the first time and no way could I sleep that night. Martha Jones is the companion for this series and I think how she and the Doctor met is really good, we learn a little more about the Doctor and the Time War and then as the series revolves around knowing a little more about the Doctor it turns out we've been missing the "Vote Saxon"s and now we have brought back The Master! I think this Master is much more like the one that met Paul McGann when he was the Eight Doctor than any in the classic series. I thought this one was a bit weird but creepy. The very end I didn't like very much, the whole plot was great but then the resolution was just that bit too unbelievable and wasn't quite explained I think. But the series as a whole was good it brought us the Weeping Angels which are awesome (until series 5, but that's another story...)

OJ Reviewing: Doctor Who series 2

David Tennant begins!

  Series two changed the main actor completely! OK David Tennant is considered to be one of the best Doctor's in NuWho and sometimes in Who history. He was very good as then Doctor and I enjoyed his episodes; 2 of my favourite ever are Tennant eps. Series 2 made everything new and brought stranger aliens and even went into paranormal again which I really don't like, just stick with the aliens, its much better. They brought back the Cybermen from the classic series and made them in a parallel world, those story's were great and I loved them, series 2 also brought out one of the most disliked episodes ever: Love and Monsters; I myself don't see the problem, it can be nice to see a civilians point of view, my dad loves this episode because he loves ELO. The series finale is my favourite so far because it didn't have any confusing and contradicting endings, It was a brilliant end with a great battle and a sad loss. Defiantly the best ending.
  The Christmas special was also quite good starring the funny Cathrine Tate and a great story, the villain I wasn't so struck on but I liked it anyway. So I like the Tennant series and he had a range of companions including Martha Jones who appears next!

OJ Reviewing: Doctor Who series 1

Well finally! I'm doing the amazing and iconic show known as: Doctor Who!

 I'd never seen it before, I'd never heard of it; my dad probably said something about Jon Pertwee in the 70's, but when I watched a tiny episode called 'Rose', boy I knew I had something good. I'd never seen anything like this; what an awesome series. Now I realise this show is a legend I love every moment I watching it.
  Series 1 of this show introduces The Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston and he is a mysterious alien who stops invasions and is always there when bad things happen. As the series went on it had great episodes with everything you ever wanted in it. My favourite alien is in this series and my first ever Doctor I saw. The villains were great and the finale was........ Hmmm. Okay. Moving on. The Christmas special is my favourite Christmas special and I love the whole set up and everything. I can't wait to review the rest of series' and I hope you Whovians enjoy them!