Doctor Who First Half of Series 6 *Spoilers*
This season is split apart in two parts. The first seven episodes have been air and the next episodes will follow this autumn. Before all memory of the recent episodes fade away here are my ramblings about them =)
A Christmas Carol (Christmas Special 2010)
A spaceship is about to crash a planet covered in strange electric clouds. The Doctor who tries to save the spaceship tries to get help on the planet itself. Soon he finds out that the electric clouds are controlled by a mean-spirited guy, who doesn’t care about the thousands of passengers on the ship.
Well a silly story (what do you expect), but still a very atmospheric episodes. Especially the cold mood at the beginning which then is gradually warmed up by the Doctors actions. One of the better Christmas specials. (I generally don’t like Christmas specials that much.)
Not everyone is easy to cheer up
The Impossible Astronaut (S06E01) & Day of the Moon (S06E02)
Amy, Rory, River and the Doctor are invited to meet at a lake at a specific time. There an astronaut walks out of the water and kills the Doctor! It turns out that the ‘future’ version of the Doctor was killed. The ‘current’ version of the Doctor is just fine. What mysterious forces are at work here? And what does the moon landing of 1969 have to do with all this.
A very confusing story with time-traveling weirdness, an astronaut, a creepy child voice and creepy aliens. I was certainly entertained. However it seems to me that sometimes the plot just generates new questions without advancing one bit. The production value of these two episodes is really good. Great landscape shots, scenery, costumes and effects.
Yes, Astronauts are really cool
The Curse of the Black Spot (S06E03)
On a ship an evil mermaid is killing the crew member by member. Luckily the Tardis materializes on the ship and the Doctor with his companions figures out the mystery of the ‘killer’-mermaid.
This story is ‘surprisingly’ ordinary in Doctor Who standards: In the end a ‘sci-fi’ explanation is found for this supernatural phenomenon.
Noo, evil mermaids
The Doctor’s Wife (S06E04)
The Doctor lands on a strange ‘Tardises’-junkyard planet. There he finds out that it is a trap designed to capture Time-Lords. Even worse, his Tardis gets stolen. Fortunately the Doctor finds a wonderful and helpful woman on that planet, who knows quite a lot about him. Who could that woman be?
Oh boy, another totally crazy and fun episode. The only thing I’ve to complain is that the CGI Tardis looks ridiculous bad. Don’t know what went wrong there.
Finally, a love interest for the Doctor?
The Rebel Flesh (S06E05) & The Almost People (S06E06)
On an isolated island the newest technology is developed: ‘Programmable matter’, which allows creating ‘doppelganger’ of real human and remote control them to do dangerous work. One day everything goes wrong and the ‘doppelgangers’ start to be ‘alive’. They become real walking and talking copies of the original humans. They think that they have a right to live, while the humans want to get rid of their ‘copy’.
A cool idea and satisfyingly simple story. However the ‘moral’-talks are somewhat annoying.
Copy and paste ftw.
A Good Man Goes to War (S06E07)
Amy has been captured by evildoers, the head-less monks. So the doctor calls his friend to free Amy and the operation is a huge success. However, why did they capture Amy and not anyone else? And did the Doctor really succeed?
Mainly a talk and ‘the Doctor is awesome’ episode with not that much story. Although the head-less monks are really cool creatures. The main point of this episode is to build up a cliff hanger for the rest of the season.
Let's fight.
Conclusion
Well what can I say about his season so far? I think it has even more insane story lines than previous seasons. It looks like Doctor Who episodes are written in a mental house. While it is fun to watch such crazy stories it makes it also harder to follow them.
I’ve also notices that there are more ‘dark’ themed episodes like ‘Christmas Carol‘, ‘Rebel Flesh’, etc. But the colorful and humorous Doctor lightens up also these episodes.
Finally a trailer: