I am – Hercules!! “Doctor Dan” calls it “an enjoyable hour”:

DOCTOR WHO 5.9 – "Cold Blood" WRITER: Chris Chibnall DIRECTOR: Ashley Way GUEST CAST: Arthur Darvill, Neve McIntosh, Meerya Syal, Robert Pugh, Nia Roberts, Richard Hope, Stephen Moore, Alun Raglan & Samuel Davues [SPOILERS] A spirited conclusion to last week's episode, if less suspenseful and let down by bathetic moments and a trite voice-over/prologue device that gave everything a pretentious feel. "Cold Blood" was nevertheless an enjoyable hour, if something that strayed too often into predictability, and never found a way to become the action-packed instalment it could have been, choosing instead to focus on talks about the possibility of a Silurian/human allegiance... This was the kind of episode where certain moments or developments worked very well, but the bigger picture disappointed. I loved how companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) were treated in this episode, both engaged in stories above and below the surface away from The Doctor (Matt Smith), who was instead partnered with Nasreen (Meera Syal) to begin with. Amy picking a pocket to escape and creep around corridors with a giant gun showed her character at its assertive best, but the script then started to give her silly quips while showing her in a bad light (bored, head in her arms, at an important meeting to broker peace with the Silurians), or screech "Doctor!" every five minutes while pouting. I really do get the feeling Karen Gillan could be marvellous in this role (just watch "The Eleventh Hour" again), but most of the writers don't really know how to approach her. So she often becomes a bolshier version of Rose. The guest cast were much stronger this week, particularly Nia Roberst' character Ambrose, who wound up electrocuting Silurian prisoner Alaya (Neve McIntosh) to death because she was so desperate to get her son Elliot (Samuel Davies) back safely. A moment that ultimately destroyed any chance of peace between humans and Silurians, much to The Doctor's anger and disappointment. It's actually a lot more interesting when The Doctor's faith in humanity is let-down like this, and this episode actually gave him quite a few opportunities to look quite fragile – such as when he was racked with pain during a Silurian scan. It helps you engage with the story when even The Doctor's seen to be in pain or simply wrong about something, which doesn't happen all that often. The Eleventh Doctor's not to everyone's taste, but I appreciate how his presence doesn’t make you relax and know everything's going to be fine... Indeed, this episode ended on a surprising note of failure for The Doctor, with another "crack" appearing and distracting everyone long enough for Restak (Neve McIntosh again) to kill Rory with a fatal laser blast. Even worse, the crack's energy quickly snared Rory's body and essentially erased his entire timeline, leaving Amy oblivious to her fiancé every existing. Quite a tragic end for their relationship, and a failure only The Doctor is even conscious of and burdened with. Juicy stuff – actually a lot more interesting than the 40-minutes that preceded it. Overall, "Cold Blood" could have been a lot more exciting and creative in where its story headed, but the use of characters was a lot better than last week (even Meera Syal was more palatable), and there were enough interesting moments to keep you engaged. This was definitely an improvement on last week's tepid start, if unlikely to be an episode you'd want to ever revisit again. The Good The effects and set design were great. Unlike ABC's remake of V, the use of greenscreen wasn't extensive or prolonged enough for you to notice its falseness. A surprising death scene with Rory, although I'm expecting him to be resurrected in the finale – anyone else? The only annoyance is that the Amy/Rory relationship has run so false that his death didn't carry much emotional impact. Plus, he's already "died" a few episodes ago, so it didn't seem fresh. I enjoyed seeing peace ruined totally by the humans, as it's so often the aliens that are the villains and saboteurs in sci-fi. But here, it was clear that it's the humans who are to blame for everything. The Bad Amy. Or rather, how she's often written. There's a wonderful character in there, struggling to get out, but she's just being given irritating dialogue and reaction shots most of the time. A disappointing arc for the story, which felt like a Star Trek episode far too often and didn't give us the big action sequences that felt likely. Some horrible voice-over and a very unnecessary epilogue that actually ruined the story because you knew everything would pan out just fine. The Geeky Writer Chris Chibnall watched the Silurians' debut TV adventure and read the novelisation "Doctor Who And The Cave Monsters" as preparation for this two-part story. Stephen Moore, playing Eldane, is the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in the BBC radio adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy. The Doctor mentions wanting celery, which is possibly a call-back to The Fifth Doctor's (Peter Davison) love of the vegetable – which he even pinned to his jacket. Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

“Kelvington” says most of it “flew by”:

When we last left the Doctor and company they were in some rather dire straights. Poor Amy was about to be vivisected, the Doctor and Nasreen had stumbled upon a Silurian's under city, and Rory and company were trying to figure out whom would kill their Silurians captive. I’ll admit, the first forty minutes of this episode FLEW by, and I mean fast, I couldn’t believe how quick and well done this one was. Yes, Amy picking the Silurian doctor’s pocket was a bit silly, and there were moments I thought could have been better. But the whole idea that they could settle this dispute with the Silurians with a meeting of the minds, and sit down and decide how the two species could live together was thrilling. And no not in a wow look at the chases and effects thrilling but in a well written, we are better than shooting at each other kind of way. Diplomacy at best is very dull, and we watch as Amy lays her head down on the table during the talks as a sign of how deadly dull it can be. And the use of a future voice over is often a lazy writing technique. But here it worked very well. You had the diplomat and the warriors. You knew at some point there had to be a clash, but about half way through the episode, even though the humans predictably killed their Silurian captive, I thought, maybe, just maybe they would hash this out with words. Of course "Doctor Who" is more about running and excitement, so the ending was going to involve a "shit load" of Silurians and a lot of running and people getting shot at. And will someone please tell me that kid's dad didn't say "Shit load"? Cause he didn't say shite, I'll have to use the close captions to know for sure. The ending doesn't disappoint the mutating grandfather stays below with his new love, and the Silurians go back to sleep for a thousand years and wait for a time when ape-kind is more ready for them to join the planet. And it all seems to wrap up very nicely. Except for the "crack" the crack in time that appears over and over, let me tell you, this better pay off big, because if it doesn't then I will not be happy. This time the crack is bigger than before and it consumes a fallen companion. The Doctor reaches into the crack and pull out a bit of what appears to be his future. Setting up these kind of REALLY BIG jolts requires a damn huge payoff. And not a "Let's hit the fracking reset button payoff", but a real, full of consequences payoff. Now if anyone can pull it off it's Moffat, but damn he's got his work cut out for himself here. The episode over all was great, and if you accept it as just being a romp, and not nitpick it to death, like we did with the "LOST" finale, you can really enjoy it for what it was. A well written, well edited and directed episode of "Doctor Who" that makes for the perfect companion piece from last week's show. While I can't say it was perfect, it was really damn close. Cut out the, what we all know is a temporary death, and the crack nonsense and it could easily have stood as two of the best episodes ever. Just my 2¢

“Gabba-UK” calls it “a bit special”:

Hi Herc, This is going to be a difficult and short one to write. Not that I was disappointed by Chris Chibnall second writing stint for this series but because there were two real 'didn't see that one coming' moments that frankly knocks you for six while still sat on your chair. And I REALLY don't want to spoil the surprise. Moffat has some real balls as a show runner it has to be said. To do what they have at the end of this episode and let it fly is courageous to say the least. Though I suspect there is a way to reverse what has happened/will happen/might happen.... So after my favourite episode of Nu-Who season 5, The Hungry Earth, Chibnall has to make good on the escalating sense of menace and threat he built up last week to such dramatic effect. Did he accomplish it? Even without the two 'didn't see that one coming' moments I would have to say yes. Starting pretty much from where we last left them, The Doctor and Nasreen are captured while exploring the Silurian city but not before The Doctor determines that the majority of the Silurians must still be asleep. Their capture interrupts the dissection of Amy. Considering the dissection of Mo involved his top being undone I can't have been the only male in the audience upset by the interruption but I digress. Amy, continuing a tradition of life skills suspiciously above those of a kissogram girl, effects both hers and Mo's escape and stumbles upon Mo's son Elliot, asleep, unharmed and beyond rescue for the moment. Back on the surface Rory is keeping it together and trying to prevent Tony and Ambrose from killing Alaya. As we know from Alaya's own lips last week, he isn't successful in this task. But Tony isn't dying from the weak CGI sting he received last week, something else is happening to him as a result of human evolution since the Silurians last walked the Earths surface. The Doctor has contrived through his own brilliance and a fair bit of luck to broker peace talks between the Human and Silurian but the murder of Alaya could be problematic and her sister, Restac, commander of the Silurian armed forces is understandably pissed off about it..... This was a very successful episode all in all. There were genuine moments of tension in the chasing of the humans through the alien city. The acting was of a high standard, the CGI matt paintings was even better than last weeks and even the Silurian sting made a much better looking appearance. But it's the emotional one-two punch of those two moments that make this episode a bit special. Adric is going to be my one and only clue to one of them and the other one is FAR too cool to ruin. And why I don't want to give anything much away if I can help it. My own personal favourite moment was when Stephen Moore, the original and best (sorry Alan Rickman but he just is) voice of Marvin, The Paranoid Android turned up as Eldane, the leader of the Silurians. Next week we have the Richard Curtis (yes that Richard Curtis) penned Vincent and the Doctor with Bill Nighy and Tony Curran as Vincent Van Gogh. Cool.

“V’Shael” calls it “the stuff”:

Hi Herc, Talkbacker V'Shael here with a spoiler free review of tonights Doctor Who, rushed out to you because you were so quick off the mark last week. I was taken to task because of sliding into spoiler territory in a previous Who talkback, so this one is genuinely spoiler free to the final full stop. Begin. This. This is the stuff. This is why I love the new show and Matt Smith. This is why I am a life long Doctor Who fan. I've seen every Sea Devils story since their introduction in the Pertwee era. And up until now, every single story has ended in savage failure. Because the Doctor (like me) knows that the Silurians/Eocenes have good reason and just cause. And if he could only get both species, humans and "homo reptilia" to put aside their differences, the combined would be greater than the sum of their parts. It's the closest thing we have to a long running story/theme in Doctor Who. Fuck the Daleks and their idiotic Time War. This theme, of the Doctors desire to put these two species together into sharing the same planet, has been a constant and recurring thorn in the characters side, every time the species meet. Up until now, the best Silurians story, for me, (even with the shitty Myrka) was Peter Davisons, which ended with the Doctor tragically poisoning the Silurians and saying regretfully "There should have been another way." Until now. Captain Jack used to say in Torchwood, that the 21st century was when everything changed. And this was definitely playing in my mind as the events unfolded on the screen. For the first time in those 30 years or so of watching Silurian stories, I felt hope. Because even though they were never really the "bad" guys, I always knew the show could never diverge from reality so much as to have them share our oceans with us. And you can't feel real fear and disappointment unless you have also felt that hope of success. That somehow, it would actually work this time. I think Matt Smith was channelling my hope and expectations at some point. Or at least, his portrayal of the Doctor here really mirrored my own inner doctor. The one that sits in my head (and I think all of our heads) and quietly demands that we be the best that we can be. Doctor Who has always been the best when the Doctor challenges humans to be better than they know, even if they invariably disappoint him. Because he always asks again. He never gives up hope that somehow the humans will be better this time. I love it. I love it so so much. I've always empathised with the Silurians. And an episode like this really hit me hard in my geeky erogenous zone. Not to get all spoilery now, but we also see some incredible plot developments in the season arc. Something really surprising and unexpected happens. (I suspect this will be spoiled by everyone) Something very very cool happens. If I had one slight problem with the episode, it would be the use of the sonic screwdriver. You'll see. Oh, and some of the green screen work is a little cheap looking. Now a brief, non spoiler tangent - (Not related to the story) I always liked the Silurians. Possibly because of my left-leaning sensibilities (and the fact that I'm Irish) meant I've always had a soft spot for displaced cultures, whether they are Native Americans, the Jews of yesteryear, or the Palestinians of today, etc. You can imagine the reverse situation very easily. Suppose the solar flares of the 29th century sterilise the surface. Humanity builds massive space arks and country-starships, and heads out to the stars. Then at some point, they return to earth, and find a thriving cockroach civilisation. The roaches are warlike, pollute the environment, not as technologically advanced as the humans, and are slowly destroying everything about Earth that humans like or had a use for. What do you think we'd do? And what if some lone space god who LOOKED like a cockroach, but really wasn't, and was WAY more advanced than us, said "Look, it's their planet now. Learn to share or leave them be." Would we listen? Would we say "Fuck you, you cockroach wannabe, you're hardly unbiased what with looking just like them." Would we try to bring some massive amounts of industrial bug cleaner to our green and pleasant land?

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