Amy splits off to her own time stream where she becomes a samurai hacker and turns Rory into the helpless robot she always wanted. It's great!
Doc leaves Clara hanging in a haunted underwater research facility or military base or oil rig
Podcast: Play in new window | Embed
The TARDIS is unhappy to have brought the 12th Doctor and Clara to an underwater research base in 2119 fully equipped with nuclear reactor, Star Trek references, quippy characters and a small but growing complement of ghosts bent on murdering anyone who enters the recovered alien spaceship in the loading bay.
There wasn’t always a lake where they are, however, and nearby is a submerged village slash military base slash underwater museum, its sole non-aquatic occupant a mystery that has lain entombed in a stasis pod since before the flood.
The spectral assassins only appear when the station goes into night-mode, and possibly but probably not to form a boyband, so the race is on to unravel this mystery and exorcise the base before digital dusk claims its next victim.
…
You asked for it, Michael. Here are the cards… ;-)
Another 2-parter in what is the season of 2-parters. Capaldi and Coleman arrive in an underwater nuclear facility in the near future haunted with ghosts. Hilarity (mainly provided by the Doctor’s awkwardness) ensues.
Sontarans:
—Similarly to the arcs of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit and The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People, the production team was able to create the feeling of a whole complex with only a few rooms and a corridor.
—I enjoyed the cast for these two episodes. There is a dead military guy, double-crossing businessman, loving deaf leader that relies on generic crew person with no real personality, science guy, and definitely not Osgood.
—The scene with the cards reminds the audience that while strange things are afoot at the Nuclear K, people have still died and the crew have lost some very good friends.
Pigslaves:
—The Ghosts never really feel all that scary. They just kind of seem like slow-moving zombies that can walk through some of the walls but only sometimes.
—How come no one monitors who leaves and returns to the base? How can business guy leave the structure without anyone realizing? Also, why would he leave if we later find there is a remote control VR submarine?
—How did they get the ship and casket into the base? The only exit we see is human sized. Why would you have a door to carry in a whole ship?
—That has to be the singularly most boring spaceship I have seen since the featureless gray box ship from that one episode Futurama with the street racers.
RATING: 3.5 dead friends/family members/pets
Lets get this Rock rolling. To start off, I love the Tivoli. They are such a unique and entertaining recurring species that make me just want to hug and then conquer them. This one played by the great Paul Kaye. Hopefully he has a bigger role next episode (wink wink). I found the whole crew endearing in this episode. Especially O’Donnell’s fangirl-ing over The Doctor. Did anyone notice the idiot characters full name? Richard Pritchard. If I had parents that cruel I’d probably be a bit of an asshole too
Clara starts showing she’s becoming a bit too “native”. Surely that won’t prove to be a problem later on, right? Luckily, she’s still human enough to supply The Doctor with hilarious cue cards which would have saved me some embarrassment on my last date. Awkward. Anyway, for once the Davis Principle doesn’t apply here since they can escape in the Tardis whenever they want, so they can hopefully go back and break the unfortunately common pattern of disappointing second episodes
The Doctor is at the top of his game in this one, between his concern for Clara and his mildly insulting attitude towards the local fauna. Though he loses points for leaving Clara hanging on that high five. Ultimately I really enjoyed this episode and give it a 4.0 out of 5 Tivoli conquering geese
Until next week (which features two awesome, yet subtle, new special guest appearances) Rock on
Things I Liked
Beefs:
Summary: Doctor Who crossed with Event Horizon and The Abyss. A fantastic, terrifying tale.
Rating: 4.4/5 litres of febreeze required daily to cleanse the Faraday Cage of six rather sweaty people.