An update on the future of this little site of ours – if indeed it’s going to have one – will be forthcoming, but for now, let’s carry on with the broadcast discussions, because a few of you seem to enjoy them. And I have a feeling that, despite some people’s disappointment with the way that the arc stuff has gone this year… the finale is going to be FUCKING BRILLIANT.

Christ, swimming in the pollution of the Thames really didn’t agree with David Walliams, did it?

An ep that already seems to have divided people, but I thought it was BLOODY GREAT, so there. Tom MacRae therefore joins Gareth Roberts in the ranks of people who’ve written REALLY CRAP episodes but then managed to later do REALLY GOOD ones. So, well done him.

Yes, yes, we’ve still got a review to catch up on – once any of us can actually put together some coherent thoughts on the all-over-the-placeness of “Let’s Kill Hitler”. In the meantime… it’s the Gatiss episode! It’s got to be better than “The Idiot’s Lantern”, eh?

Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler?
If you think we’re on the run…
We are the boys who will stop your little game!
We are the boys who will make you think again!
‘Cause, who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler
If you think old England’s done?
Mr Brown goes off to town on the 8:21,
But he comes home each evening and he’s ready with his gun.
So who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler
If you think old England’s done?

“Well, let’s ‘review’ the situation, shall we, Mr Capps?”

“Urrrgggggghhhhhhhhh…”

“Before I left the country for a period, I was assured that URP!’s review of A Good Man Goes To War would be posted in ‘two shakes of a lambkin’s tail’. My words, admittedly, but your sentiments. Instead, on my return from a literal and metaphorical holiday, I find no review, despite the episode reaction thread receiving more comments than any other this year.”

WHO is River Song? WHY is Rory dressed like a Roman again? WHO is Amy’s baby? WHY are the Cybermen involved? WHO is Madame Kovarian? WHERE do the Clerics come into all of this? WHY did the Doctor die in episode one? WHO was the regenerating girl? WILL we even find out the answers to all of these questions tonight? WHAT will the intensely frustrating cliffhanger that will keep us all guessing and on edge until September be? HOW fucking excited are we about this episode?

Okay, here’s the thing. We managed to not have someone tapped in advance to review “The Almost People” – and those who might have been available to do so are simply too busy this week to fit it in. Furthermore, when the episode aired, it became apparent that it was among the most “more of the same” episodes (the last few minutes aside, which we’ll come to) that there’s been. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I quite liked part one, and I quite liked part two, as well – but it does mean that there’s very little new to say about the ep that wasn’t already covered by Ben’s review of “The Rebel Flesh“.

And besides which, let’s be honest – that closing couple of minutes made it difficult to want to think about the preceding forty, because they made us all entirely obsessed and preoccupied with thinking about “A Good Man Goes To War” instead, didn’t they?

So, the short version is: we won’t be reviewing “The Almost People” (although there’s a vague consensus that it was “pretty good”, depending on whether you liked the first). But feel free to continue yammering about it in the broadcast discussion thread, or if you want to yammer here about your thoughts/theories/speculation regarding the mid-series finale, you can do that as well. And we’ll be back on Saturday, natch.

 

Part One was QUITE GOOD. Will Part Two be QUITE GOOD as well? Time to find out. It’s got a cracking title, anyway.
Oh, and apparently there’s a BIG CLIFFHANGER at the end, or something.

How many of you went into “The Rebel Flesh” with preconceptions of what the episode would be? How many of you went in with spoilers and foreknowledge and all that wonderful gubbins? I’m guessing a fair few of you – Doctor Who fans are an inquisitive lot, and it probably doesn’t help that the BBC have been a bit wobbly with spoilers this series. Meanwhile I’ve managed to stay relatively spoiler-free. With a few minor exceptions I haven’t really been exposed to much about the current series of the show prior to broadcast, in part because I haven’t been actively seeking it out, but mainly because I haven’t really had the time.

The upside is that I’m going into each episode of the show with no preconceptions or expectations, although “The Rebel Flesh” works fairly quickly to instill some preconceptions during the first ten minutes. It’s an episode that fits a familiar mould – the Doctor shows up in base where people are doing something they shouldn’t be and things go tits up. Only just when it looks like it might defy the expectations you didn’t know you had and pull the rug out from under your feet, it stops tugging and, like a Mortal Kombat player who’s forgotten how to do a Fatality, just kicks you in the shins instead.

Spoilers ahead, obviously.