Chris Chibnall has acquired a bit of a bad reputation among DW fans, mostly for two atrocious Torchwood episodes. While he’s improved recently – this one’s not going to help with his reputation at all with some people.
I’m going to do these reviews a little differently from my Eleven Faces of Who series: I’ll just point out ten things worthy of comment on this episode:
· Matt Smith again is superb – his portrayal of the Doctor is self-aware, really alien and great fun.
· Amy was pretty much a second Doctor in this episode – she’s clearly learned a lot travelling with the Doctor.
· Didn’t see the point of Queen Nefertiti in this at all. While she was amusing, she didn’t really add anything to this.
· Riddell was fun, but Rupert Graves is getting typecast these days. Does he do anything except posh?
· David Bradley and Mark Williams did a good job with not entirely brilliant material.
· There was some adult stuff in this – particularly the comment about ‘breaking in’ Nefertiti.
· Mitchell and Webb as a pair of silly robots? Worst thing about this episode without a doubt.
· Was that ‘Bad Wolf Bay’ in the beach scene? It looked like it.
· The dinosaurs weren’t awful, but they really were just a gimmick for an otherwise limited (but reasonably good) plot.
· Interesting choice with the Indian Space Agency. Not good or bad, just interesting.
Conclusion
This started off with such promise, but despite a batch of good performances, I found myself getting bored by the end. It’s trying to do too much and not doing a lot of it well.
It just avoids being a clunker, but this is likely to be the worst one of these first five.
4/10
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