The Forsaken written by Don Carlos Dunaway & Michael Piller and directed by Les Landau

What’s it about: Mrs Troi visits the station and falls for a most unusual man…

Single Father: The look on Sisko’s face when he turns away from the Ambassadors who have just invaded Ops is priceless. Somehow from deep inside he manages to conjure up a smile but you can see it is painful for him. Suck it up, Sisko, we've all had to toadying up to our superiors like this. Curzon used to delight in giving Sisko some dreadful assignments when he was a junior office and so now he enjoys torturing Bashir in the same way. He doesn't even hide the fact that he is getting off on watching his medical officer struggling. What a guy. 

Unknown Sample: Poor Odo doesn’t quite know how to react when Lwaxana visits him in his office in her sexiest wig (and her sexiest ever outfit) and literally starts climbing the furniture to paw at him. ‘Odo…it rolls of the tongue!’ His take on procreation is typically unique (it doesn’t require changing how you smell or sacrificing various plant life to serve as tokens of affection!). Odo understands thieves and killers but doesn’t have a clue how to handle women. He also doesn’t handle delicacy very well. The look on his face when he realises he is stuck in a lift with Mrs Troi is one of sheer horror (and very funny). When Mrs Troi starts going on about her lurid sex life with Ferengi’s Odo wonders wistfully how many volts are in the exposed circuit…whether to try and escape or commit suicide I’m not entirely sure. Odo is so used to people accepting him for what he is but not understanding him that when Lwaxana starts asking him about how he made his hair and about his past he talks about it tentatively. He never grew up per se, it was merely a transition between what he used to be to what he chose to become. Mrs Troi is right, it does sound very lonely. By the end of the episode she seems to have thawed out his metaphorical heart a little as he melts into her lap.

GE Doctor: How delicious that Bashir is lumbered with the ‘Ambassadors of Unhappy’. This bunch of complaining, opinionated, insulting and thoroughly miserable Federation representatives put him through the wringer and no mistake and it's wonderful to see Sisko palming off this rotten assignment on the young Doctor. 

Everyday Engineer: Remember when O’Brien was having a tiff with the computer in Emissary? Well that is nothing compared to the domestic he has to cope with it here. He’s so pissed off with its constant opinions he insists on doing a root canal and digging out the guts of the thing and putting back together so it does what he says. Shouldn’t take any more than two or three years.

Mrs Troi: I love Mrs Troi! I know people found her tiresome on TNG but for me she was the complete opposite. Here was somebody who spoke her mind, who took great delight in taking the piss out of the crass, middle class lot of them (even her daughter with the spectacularly insightful ‘Deanna dear I love you dearly but you do turn everything into an epitaph.’). So naturally she fits in perfectly with all the misfits and exiles on DS9, gambling and flirting generally having a great time. She turns Oo’max into some serious pain for Quark when he refuses to compensate for her missing hair brooch (‘I know where it hurts the most you little troll!’) and then falls for the enigmatic Constable Odo when she sees how unique a man he is. The chemistry between Rene Auberjonois and Majel Barrett is very natural and their quick fire exchanges have the witty repartee of a good Noel Coward film. Lwaxana heads off down memory lane and recounts the events of Ménage a Troi. The scene where Lwaxana tries to comfort Odo as he tries to resist regenerating is like none we have ever seen from her before, it completely redefines what the character is capable of beyond being a comic caricature. When she takes off her wig and offers Odo a rare glimpse into how ordinary she really looks your heart melts with the intimacy between the two characters at that moment. The writing is so sensitive and has taken two of the strongest willed Trek characters and broken them right down to their barest state and the result is that we understand them both so much more and invest a great deal in their relationship. Who saw any of that coming? 

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You are the thin beige line between order and chaos!’
‘Every sixteen hours I turn into a liquid!’ ‘I can swim.’
‘Even we non shape shifters have to change who were are every now and again’ ‘You are not at all what I expected’ ‘No-one has ever paid me a greater compliment.’
‘When it comes to picnics the only thing that really matters is the company.’

Dreadful Dialogue: ‘That’s it?’ says the Bolian Ambassador ‘I was expecting more somehow.’ You really want to punch this guy in the face! 

The Good: Why is it when there are explosions and fires on DS9 they feel so much more dramatic than on other Trek shows? Afterwards the corridor is a wreck and screaming with sparks and filled with smoke. O’Brien's computer/puppy metaphor is one of the cutest (‘keep it off the furniture’). 

The Bad: Sisko schedules a briefing at 0400. In the morning? Is that the same corridor explosion from If Wishes Were Horses?

Moment to Watch Out For: The scene where Odo melts into Mrs Troi’s lap. My mum watched this with me on its first transmission and she was reaching for the tissues.

Only DS9: ‘Are you actually suggesting that we indulge in one of those disgusting Ferengi sex programmes?’ – this show is obsessed with sex! Every episode seems to have a reference! ‘I’ve never been with a shape shifter’ ‘Been with?’ The scene where Odo visits Sisko to complain about Mrs Troi’s voracious sexual appetite could only happen on DS9 (and not just because its these characters). It’s a delightful scene that sees Sisko loving Odo’s discomfort at being sought after ‘like a Wanoni tracehound!’

Myth Building: One thing I have noticed is that nine times out of ten if Michael Piller is involved with a script he literally brings the best out of the characters on this show…and Les Landau is extremely good at directing intimate dramas like this (see also Progress).

Result: Not content with having a gorgeous A story that sees Mrs Troi set her sights on Odo, The Forsaken also chooses to torture Bashir in an amusing B story and even feature a C story that uses technobabble in a really fun way. I’m not sure how they manage to pack it all in but none of these narratives feels undersold and they weave around each other effortlessly. Every scene is imbued with character that skips through everything from romantic comedy to intimate drama and the performances are sublime. Because it has so much going on it doesn’t quite have the focus of the best episodes of the season but it is still ridiculously entertaining and has some really moving scenes between Odo and Lwaxana. Both Vortex and The Forsaken offer tantalising glimpses into a softer Odo without diminishing the character in the slightest and have provided some of the most touching moments of the season: 8/10

Deep Breath written by Steven Moffat and directed by Ben Wheatley

This story in a nutshell: The most schizophrenic Doctor arrives on the scene...

Indiscernible: 'I have a horrible feeling I'm going to have to kill you...I thought you might appreciate a drink first.' Welcome to the world of Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi. To say I was disappointed with his performance in the first half of Deep Breath would be an understatement. I had been telling doubters that this was going to be the most interesting Doctor yet and here he was jerking about like a puppet with his strings cut, talking nonsensically and failing to even tickle the funny bone as he did so. It was just irritating wackiness. That's a new approach (unless you count Sylvester McCoy's debut). Fortunately things took a massive u-turn in the second half and all the things I was expecting from Capaldi - gravitas, darkness and a suggestion of something truly sinister beneath - all began to surface. I wouldn't say that he is fully defined as a character like Matt Smith was in The Eleventh Hour. In fact I would say that he is barely defined as a character at all but that is rather exciting. Looking back at the 11th Doctor's era it is clear that he started at his zenith and generally haemorrhaged interest throughout his tenure until he was little more than a collection of quirks come his finale. Capaldi is in a much different place after his debut, with places to go and grow. I think it is going to be a most interesting ride.

His first scene is horribly awkward and packed full genuinely awful dialogue. Why secure an actor of this magnitude and give him such foolish things to say? This dialogue is beneath him and Capaldi struggles under its weight of ineptitude. It's basically the pre-titles sequence of The Christmas Invasion (Jenny's dialogue mirrors Jackie's at the end), three times as long, terribly scripted and without the impressive stunt of the TARDIS crash landing. The bedroom, eyebrows and anti-English dialogue is just as bad, it is a character trying to be idiosyncratic rather than simply being so...and that's painful. And as for the comic noise when the Doctor falls unconscious, that's just peculiar. His chalk equations on the floor of his bedroom was the first point where I thought this Doctor might work out, maybe that was the idea. To wrong foot us so completely. I wonder how many of the casual audience wont be watching next week though because of the crazy old git literally screaming his head from the rooftops and jumping in the Thames (several of my friends that don't watch the show on a regular basis declared this the worst thing they had seen on television in many a year). His sadness and anger for the burning dinosaur felt very Doctorish to me, a lovely touch. Planet of the pudding brains? I preferred it when he just called us stupid apes. The tension and chemistry between the Doctor and Clara in the restaurant scene is palpable, this shows great promise. All Moffat had to do was to add some mutual antipathy. Leaving Clara to her fate might just be the best thing he does in the entire story, for once the Doctor is a genuinely unpredictable. When he confronts the villain of the piece, all mood and wit, the Doctor has arrived, albeit not quite fully formed yet.

The Impossible Girl: The biggest revelation of Deep Breath, even moreso than Peter Capaldi for me. It's nice to see that there has been a genuine character rattling around inside there all this time and this 80 minutes did more to justify Clara's existence than the entirety of her output last year. I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first because the good stuff is worth concentrating on. This is an unrealistic leap in a positive direction. Last year Clara was self assured to the point of no longer serving as a character, she stormed around submarines filling with water, took on a haunted house and directed an army of soldiers against a Cyberman army without batting an eyelid or breaking a sweat. It was infuriatingly smug and unrealistic. This was not a character I could identify with. To have her go from that to falling to pieces just because the guy she fancies has changed faces (a fact that she should be intimately acquainted with because she has jumped all over his time stream) is seriously inconsistent to the point where we could be talking about another character entirely. However the new, less assured, more tentative and angry Clara is one that I very much like and can buy into...so I'll let it slide this time. It is wonderful to see Clara not being able to cope for once, I can sympathise with her for a change. This new Doctor is gangly and awkward and she doesn't know how he fits into the life she has built with the old one. Suddenly this man that she fancies (icky) is old and ugly (comparatively speaking) and it has thrown her. Whilst her anger in the face of Vastra isn't scripted very naturally that is the first time that we have really seen her teeth. I wanted to applaud like Jenny. 'I am extremely cross' she tells the Doctor. Hurrah. We even get to see Clara failing to cope with her class at school. Now she is a mass of neuroses I find her infinitely more believable. 

Lizard Lady, Lesbian Lover & Jolly Sontaran: I fail to see the point in continuing to return to these characters if we never learn anything new about them when we do. Aside from highlighting a pro interspecies and gay stance (and I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that...just that it is highlighted to the point where this is the only interesting thing about these characters), there is little here that we haven't seen before. Frankly I would rather see the Tyler clan coping with a new Doctor because I can buy into them as characters and they mirror how I might react to things. A Silurian, a cockney maid and fat Sontaran form what can hardly be called a realistic set up so you've lost half the battle there already, albeit with the non-fan audience. They are semi-regulars now (having appeared in The Snowmen, The Crimson Horror, The Name of the Doctor and Deep Breath) but I fail to understand what makes them so fascinating that they are worth continuing the association. They're fun, they're worth the odd appearance, maybe once a year but if we're not going to learn anything fresh about their characters (continuing saying 'we're married' doesn't constitute something fresh) then I don't understand the appeal. It doesn't further the exploration of the Silurians, the Sontarans or humanity. I have to say I miss the idea of these species (well perhaps not humanity) as enemies of the Doctor. Using them as characters in a Victorian based sitcom is hardly seeing them at their best. Sorry to be such a killjoy. Plus Strax's idiotic misunderstandings of human anatomy are beyond a joke now, Douglas Adams Moffat aint.

Sparkling Dialogue: 'This isn't a man turning himself into a robot. This is a robot turning himself into a man.'

'Threats don't work unless you can deliver.'

'I am not a control freak!'

The Good:

* The one good thing I took from the first half hour was Clara spending the night with the Paternoster gang and generally slowing the pace down and soaking in the atmosphere of the period. There has been so little of that lately and I have missed it.

* Smacking Clara in the face with the Times. Laugh out loud funny. As is Strax falling to the floor like a sack of spuds after Vastra and Jenny have made such a graceful entrance.

* Brian Miller back in Doctor Who. The scene between the Doctor and tramp might be bizarrely written (all this obsession with mighty eyebrows, the Scots and stealing smelly coats) but it is beautifully performed by Miller and Capaldi.

* Clara insults the Doctor (he doesn't have the attention span) and the Doctor insults Clara (an ego maniac needy game player). This is a promising new trend.

* Simon guessed immediately that this was a sequel to The Girl in the Fireplace once the ticking in the restaurant began resounding. That doesn't make it any less of a chilling moment when you realise that the Doctor and Clara are surrounded by automatons. Moffat still has a penchant for the odd jarring shock. Although it still isn't original, an eatery filled with humanoid machines calls to mind The Android Invasion.

* The visible clockwork inside the robots heads. Just how I like my plots, very neat.

The Bad:

* The dinosaur is probably the worst thought through plot element in Moffat's entire reign and it kick starts a whole new era. Go figure. As far as Moffat is concerned it is probably just a fun way to introduce the Doctor to the audience but it comes with it a whole host of problems that counter the effect of a memorable introduction. For one it is hardly original, we had dinosaurs stomping about last year and the Doctor has already made a disgraceful exit out of the mouth of a giant creature (The Beast Below). Also wasn't one of the reasons Moffat invented the cracks in time and space to tuck away all those out in the open alien invasions that Russell T Davies was so fond of? And he is shamelessly flouting that rule to get a reaction. Don't get me wrong it looks fantastic, as good as any dinosaur I have ever seen on screen...but it isn't even a salient plot point. It is packaged as such for the first half an hour, stomping about the town with attitude but ultimately it is just a distraction, a way to turn a 45 minute story into an 80 minute one. It has nothing to do with the central narrative (nowhere to be seen for the first half an hour, aside from one brief moment) whatsoever. It is just a quirky way to bring the new Doctor to light in a spectacular way and then, like the irrelevant exercise that it is it just fizzles away and burns. And obviously nobody remembered this bizarre dinosaur shaped disaster afterwards. Never underestimate the human ability to forget things it can't handle.

* Ben Wheatley's direction is severely lacking in places. I don't often say that about a new series director but this was more apparent because the talents of this particular director have been splashed all over the media. It reminds me of something Eric Saward said once, that he could get in touch with genuinely strong writers but it doesn't mean that they could write for Doctor Who because it is such a curious beast. I would add direction to that list now. Wheatley manages to frame some scenes very well but were many more moments where I thought the tension and the humour missed the mark by a mile. The scene where the Doctor falls unconscious spectacularly fails to be amusing in precisely the way that Smith's collision with the tree was hilarious in The Eleventh Hour. And I think that is entirely down to the direction. Clara trapped underground without the Doctor should have been stiflingly claustrophobic and tense but shot mostly from a distance it fails to generate any anxiety. A shame, given the conscious choice the Doctor has made to leave her this should have been the most frightening moment of NuWho yet. Sabotaged by the director. His greatest sin is the action sequence at the climax though. Clara and the Paternoster gang are tackling the androids but it so confusingly directed you be hard pressed to figure out what is going on. The editor deserves a slap on the wrist too.

* The new title music is an assault on the ears, unfortunately. Murray Gold's season four score is still my favourite; exciting, dynamic, catchy, nostalgic. This version reduces the Doctor Who theme to the sound of fingers down a blackboard. And we all know how pleasant that sounds. The titles are better than last year but still a little too busy. What is wrong with simple? The TARDIS travelling down the vortex has always been enough...why is there suddenly a need to throw so much at the audience? Is Moffat scared they will get bored during the title sequence?

* Way to admit everything that went wrong during the Matt Smith era by acknowledging that Clara and the Doctor were boyfriend and girlfriend. The script makes several references to the fact that they both consented to that arrangement...and that should never be the case. Even with the Doctor and Rose in series two it was a one sided affair, he did have strong feelings for her but he certainly didn't lust after her in a short skirt or embrace the life as her boyfriend. Moffat has been obsessed with taking the Doctor to brink of consensual sex, acting up as Clara's boyfriend, lusting after her and being pawed at in Amy's bedroom. They've now chosen a lead who cannot fulfil that task for Moffat (visually it just would not work) and so now Danny Pink has been drafted in to add the element to the show that he simply cannot write without. The sex. You mark my words.

* 'It don't look realistic' 'I blame the government...' - why are the Victorian characters all talking in contemporary language.

* Let's count the recycled plot elements. Dinosaurs (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship), regeneration crisis (take your pick), the Paternoster Gang (five previous stories), robots stealing body parts (The Girl in the Fireplace), the Victorian setting (as predictable as contemporary London was during Davies' era after four airings in the previous ten stories), don't breathe (don't blink), the Doctor sailing over Victorian London in a hot air balloon (The Next Doctor). In fact was there a single original notion in this story? You would hope that recycling elements from The Girl in the Fireplace would add an extra layer of interest to the previous tale, would tell us something new that allows us to see it in a brand new way. Nadda, it is just a sister ship, plain and simple. And as much as I like the darker Doctor element, it is hardly a new idea. Hartnell had quite the temper, Troughton could jettison his humour in a moment, Pertwee was violent, Baker brooded, Baker II cut through time a space like a serrated saw, McCoy destroyed entire worlds, Eccleston epitomised menace and Tennant dished out some pretty severe punishments. It is only in the wake of the Nutty Professor that this shadowy approach feels refreshing. Even the Doctor killing somebody from a great height was handled in The Christmas Invasion. And they made far less of a song and dance about it. Tennant was just as dark, but less self consciously so. Next week: the Daleks. What happened to this bold new era of innovation?

* Horsey humour is so passé now. And the broom metaphor might have worked if it hadn't been done to much more amusing effect in Only Fools and Horses. 'Always look after your broom, Dave.'

* With Moffat you have to acknowledge that he changes the rules as he goes along or go mad. He might set something up in one story (say the Doctor's final death on Trenzalore with the TARDIS left as a monument) but he will completely contradict it in another (it never happened in Time of the Doctor so unless he will return once again to Trenzalore on his very last regeneration - which is the stretchiest of narrative stretches - there is no biodata for Clara to jump into a save his life because the TARDIS isn't there. Which means she cannot meet him in Asylum. Or The Snowmen...I'll stop before I short circuit) so that the set up in the first story makes no sense whatsoever. It might be lousy continuity and lazy (and I loathe to use that word) writing but you have to accept it as it is the only way to proceed through his era without having a logic based breakdown. Strax was established as a competent medical Doctor in A Good Man Goes to War. Now he cannot tell a human arse from the far side of the moon. It makes no sense whatsoever, it's character devolution for a cheap gag.

* 35 minutes into the episode, Vastra looks at a map of where the deaths have occurred. That is when the plot kicks in. That is almost the length of a standard episode.

* 'Clara, I'm not your boyfriend...' might be the worst line in Doctor Who ever. Why would that ever need to be said unless something had gone fundamentally wrong with the Doctor in the previous incarnation?

* Why would the Doctor need to phone Clara in the future to help her transition with the new Doctor when he is about to make an ages-long speech to her before regenerating? Why not just say 'Clara, I might be a bit of a wanker but stick with me' instead of all that airy fairy nonsense about never forgetting when the Doctor was me? Oh right, because they wanted a Matt Smith cameo and for the audience (and Clara) to be comforted. Bollocks writing, making zero sense when considered for a half a second. Aren't I clever because I set this up by having the TARDIS phone hanging off the hook in Time of the Doctor? Nope, you've just made yourself look like an idiot for setting up something that really didn't need to happen. Stop trying to be clever and think.

* The advert in the newspaper, that was a lovely hint of an arc. Somebody trying to keep the Doctor and Clara together. The final scene (despite being well played) was an indication that we were in for more of the same. Another smugly self assured mysterious woman who considers the Doctor to be her boyfriend. Hello River. Hello Clara. Hello Tasha Lem. Hello Missy. Try playing a new track, Moffat.

The Shallow Bit: Everyone is up in arms about the lesbian, interspecies kiss. Maybe they have forgotten about the Doctor and Jack's kiss in The Parting of the Ways. Or the thousand references to the fact that Vastra and Jenny are married. What do people imagine they get up to in private? Counting the scales on her lizard head? Upsetting homophobes and racists and delicate parents is three way win as far as I'm concerned. It was a gentle moment between two characters that is barely worth commenting about. The storm that has brewed in its wake proves that family television still has a long way to go. Allusions to Clara watching porn are hilarious, if slightly inappropriate. I hope kids don't probe their parents any further on that one. Jenny let's her hair down in her underwear...and she's beautiful. Who knew? Vastra in green...that's a nice look for her.

Standout Scene: The Doctor brooding menacingly in the TARDIS, refusing to conform for Clara. I feels different. This is a Doctor who wont go out of his way to comfort his assistant or the audience. I hope they keep that up. This is the most vital scene in the entire episode and I'm glad this is the one that Wheatley aced, especially the lighting. Even the TARDIS has more of a brooding edge.

Result: The first half an hour of Deep Breath might just be the most worst opening to any regeneration story. Previous recipients were either so shocking they were like having a bucket of cold water thrown in your face (the Doctor strangling Peri) or paradoxically so dreadful they were deliriously enjoyable to watch (Kate O'Mara dressing up and doing her best Bonnie Langford impression). I found myself drifting off to make dinner and just listening with one ear. Which is bizarre because the last half hour does some genuinely interesting things with its characters. Deep Breath has an extra 35 minutes to play with but it doesn't use them wisely. Time of the Doctor tried to squeeze too much into to short a time...Deep Breath has the opposite problem. Although there is the odd nugget of gold in the script, the dialogue is frequently painful and the plot is entirely made up of recycled ideas. Those who are declaring this as one of Moffat's best are clearly coming to the show from a different place critically than I am. Just because we so desperately want this to be a bold new era of Doctor Who...that doesn't mean it automatically is and whilst this has some fresh elements to it (mostly the Doctor's brooding darkness in the wake of Smith's wackiness) this is still laden with the flaws that have been apparent in Moffat's approach since series six. Perhaps this was the point where a new showrunner (hate that term), one who is not a fan should have taken the reins. It worked for Hinchcliffe. The new Doctor is deliberately awkward and non-conformist and whilst that might work for Doctor Who fans who understand that it takes a while to settle into the role I can only imagine the wider audience watching and recoiling at the enforced strangeness that the protagonist is forced to exhibit. Capaldi pulls it together in the last half an hour and focuses on the Doctor's exciting newfound murkiness but he really struggles in the opening half of this story. Clara is improved exponentially simply by reacting to the situation like a human being rather than the unfazed super companion she was last year. When did acting scared become a revolutionary concept for a companion? Only in the wake of Amy and Clara Mark I... While the plot never thrilled me, there were some intriguing scenes in the tail end of the story (mostly down to Capaldi's riveting performance) and whilst I never for one moment bought that the semi regulars would be killed (people don't die in the Moffat-verse, remember?) the climax is at least dramatically satisfying. Ben Wheatley is a name that has excited a lot of people but judging by the material here he was lauded a little too early. I would say he is one of the weaker directors to have realised a story yet. I would sum up Deep Breath as an abject failure as a story but an intriguing success as a character tale...once it got going. I would say that on strength of Time of the Doctor and Deep Breath back to back that Steven Moffat has gone bankrupt creatively (he has exhausted his well of ideas) but still has some tricks up his sleeves when it comes to his characters. It is a frustrating situation because I want razor sharp stories and strong characterisation but after the trinity of terror last year (Journey, Nightmare and Time) I will happily take at least one or the other for the time being. I am genuinely excited to see what the new writers bring this year with new set up but Moffat is going to have to up his game exponentially, in story terms, in order to get the show up to scratch: 5/10

Beyond the Grave written by Aaron Lamont and directed by David Darlington, Darren Gross & Jim Pierson

What's it about: “Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise again for the difficulties we’ve been having. If you’ll excuse the expression, it seems we have a ghost in the machine...” Forty years ago, the paranormal television show Beyond the Grave broadcast a very special Halloween episode - live from Collinsport, Maine. Presenters Tom Lacey and Kate Ripperton introduced the nation to the legend of 'Mad Jack,' the local fisherman who had reportedly haunted the town's cemetery for over six decades. The terrifying events that followed have become infamous. Suppressed and denied by the authorities, the episode was thought lost forever... until now. Now, for the first time in forty years, you can hear the true horror of that fateful night in Collinsport...

Standout Performance: A chance for the entire cast (or a large percentage) to show up and expose the formidable pool of talent fronting this range. Steven Kelly and Asta Parry can be added to that list, they have the toughest job here by taking up the lions share of the action. Who impressed me the most? Colin Baker, in his momentary but unforgettable cameo.

Sparkling Dialogue: 'What were you expecting? A few spooky noises and the odd boo?'

Great Ideas: Time for something completely different, dispensing with the usual theme tune and prologue and using the Beyond the Grave intro to kick start this story. Different is healthy for this kind of range, it keeps the audience on their toes and reminds them that the formula can be broken when the need arises. They could do with a little of this in the Doctor Who main range at the moment. I also love found footage stories. They are something of a favourite of mine. If you go looking on the more obscure horror routes of Lovefilm and Netfix you will discover some rather wonderful (if highly melodramatic) found footage films (usually set in an asylum that some wannabe film maker has found to shoot it) that are well worth a look. There have been a number of attempts made on TV too, with Red Dwarf, Supernatural and Star Trek all having a go but so far Big Finish (audio being a medium that you would think would be ideal for this kind of story) has strayed away from the idea. The closest you will find is LIVE 34, which is a story told out news broadcasts. So the writer has started on the right foot by pushing for something completely innovative. The idea of sending a presenter overseas to Collinsport whilst the show is being broadcast in the UK is a wonderful idea for a horror, he is facing everything alone and all the crew (and the audience) can do is try and advise and listen to the hell he is going through. Jack Hutchinson was a fisherman with the local fleet took his wife and three children to the local cemetery and by the morning they were all dead. Frankly anybody who goes on the chase of such a story deserves everything they get, a bit like Alfie and Emma in Beneath the Veil. There is a 10% greater risk of a violent death in Collinsport than in the rest of America - I've barely scratched the surface with this town and I would say that is underselling the position. There is a strong indication of physical manifestation tonight and so the unwise and the exploitative Beyond the Grave team are camping out in the graveyard to see what materialises. You can't help but wish them the best of deaths. The ghost of Mad Jack is an established, if underground, paranormal figure. How glorious to have Tom interviewing the various characters that we have met through the previous handful of storylines, getting their opinion on the wife tales that surround Mad Jack. It is another way of making this a cohesive universe, bringing everybody together in one story without it being intrusively arc based. Carolyn was screaming drunk, of course. Alfie and Emma turn up, before the events in BtV and are just as irritating as ever. There have been extreme examples of malevolent presences at Eaglehill. What was I saying about found footage stories and asylums? Live television is a perfect ingredient of the horror genre...remember Ghostwatch? Experience the horror of the situation in real time. Aaron Lamont would be doing a pretty lousy job if he didn't ape the enforced banter and mockery of the evil spirits that is the bread and butter of the presenters on shows like Most Haunted. It just makes the build up all the more delicious, their mockery will eventually come back to bite them in the butt. The advert breaks are inspired because they allow a dramatic pause in the action, like the cliff-hangers over on Doctor Who. Maggie Evans bursts onto the scene of the broadcast, all portents of doom and disaster, just like Miss Hawthorne in The Daemons. I picked up on the screaming in the distance long before it was pointed out. It's just subtle enough that you might think it is a random background noise and problem with the sound design. This is a horror though...I knew it was a woman screaming. Danielle's appearance is a particular delight because you can hear the devils whisper underneath her natural brogue. I can't wait to find out the fallout from the events of Beneath the Veil. Chaos starts breaking out in town, Tom's visit and digging into its past being the catalyst to the madness that ensues. Have you ever been somewhere that just felt bad and evil? One place that has seen so much death and pain that it actually begins to crave it. I've heard of the theory of a location that is so absorbed with the pain it has experienced that it has taken on a malevolent force...but to crave such feelings, that is a genuinely chilling, original idea. What is this very old and very angry presence that has been unleashed in Collinsport? And if this is found footage from 40 years ago...where the hell is it now? Something that finds the darkest thoughts that you have ever had and makes them grow...brrr. In a tragic conclusion, Jim sacrifices himself to save them all leaving Maggie Evans bereft.

Audio Landscape: Braving the elements, wind and rain, deep breaths, a sinister nursery rhyme. Sorry, I got too caught up in the story to keep track of any more sound effects. Needless to say that it was a skilfully crafted piece of work with some stunning atmospherics. 

Standout Scene: The cut to the house of the couple that have been invaded by Mad Jack. Fuck me, that's scary. How about the scene where elements from so many stories blend (including the song from The Flip Side and the nursery rhyme that keeps making its presence known) in sequence that must have been a nightmare to edit. Too many riches to count, bringing all these stories together.

Result: 'It's going to make us do horrible things, Maggie...' Do not, I repeat, DO NOT listen to this in the dark on your own if you are of a nervous disposition. Beyond the Grave is a terrific culmination of many of the Dark Shadows stories I have listened to so far, a chance to gather all the characters inconspicuously in one narrative and bring their stories together. It also manages to have a smart and original story of its own that exploits the audio medium to its full potential and provides many skincrawling scares. That is a fine achievement. To be honest you can tell, even on a first listen, that this is a script that has been crafted with great care. I make it sound so precise which isn't the case at all whilst listening, Beyond the Grave sports a fun Most Haunted style scenario with a presenter visiting Collinswood and poking his nose into all the sinister goings on...and suffering the consequences of that. Mad Jack (for that is the name assigned) is the most disturbing nasty that this series has come up with yet, a genuinely terrifying presence that I'll probably be seeing in the mirror now. There are elements of the cult classic Ghostwatch in this story and lots of clever narrative jiggery pokery that comes with a found footage tale. There might be three directors helming this tale and they all deserve a round of applause because this much have been an absolute nightmare to put together into a cohesive story. The fact that they manage to put the pieces together in such a riveting fashion and have time for so many chilling atmospherics is worthy of some kudos. Beyond the Grave is genuinely innovative storytelling wrapped up in that insidiously creepy Dark Shadows atmosphere, it breaks my heart to think that thousands are buying Big Finish's less challenging ranges and are ignoring where the treasures lie. If you want to experience something more demanding than a nostalgia rush, pick up this experimental horror: 10/10

The Power of Three written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Douglas McKinnon

This story in a nutshell: The year of the slow invasion when the Doctor came to stay with the Ponds…

Nutty Professor: The Doctor is a mass of contradictions; he likes exploring new places and discovering new wonders but he doesn’t like it when there are potential threats to people he loves that he cannot fathom out. Sometimes he likes not knowing, other times he hates it. Rory asks a pertinent question about what the Doctor thinks they get up between his infrequent visits. Of course they have lives of their own with jobs and friends and family…it's just he never hangs around long enough to see any of that (if he can help it). When the Doctor mocks his ‘little job’ Rory is right to stick up for the life he has built and to tell him that what he does isn’t all that there is. It’s a moment of spectacular arrogance on the Doctor’s part and he looks troubled that his friends would rather head off home than for a quick jaunt around the universe with him. The Time Lord doesn’t like his enemies to be impressive, he prefers them vulnerable with a nice Achilles Heel (weird that it always seems to work out that way despite appearances to the contrary, huh?). The way the Doctor spits out the word Twitter left me with no illusion of his opinion of the social networking site. We saw a far more subtle approach to the Doctor’s issues with linear time in Vincent and the Doctor but watching him rushing about doing chore because he cannot bear to sit still still raised a smile. He’s been hanging around for months waiting for the cubes to make their move so its very amusing when he tries to brush one aside the second it starts to do something. The Doctor’s speech about not running away from anything in his travels but running to things before they fade away is magnificently scripted. It captures his character so concisely. Amy was the first face this Doctor saw and it was seared onto his hearts.  I will never get tired of the Doctor defending humanity and their achievements (almost as much as I’ll never get tired of him condemning us and our achievements).

The Ponds: This time we’re seeing life with Amy and Rory through the Doctor’s eyes, neatly subverting the norm and as a result I feel closer to all three of them than ever. Quite apt considering next week is their last adventure together. The dramatic crux of this episode isn’t the alien invasion of the week but which choice Amy and Rory are going to make – to start a life on their own without sporadic visits into time and space or to travel with the Doctor until they are no longer able to. We learn that Amy and Rory have known the Doctor now for ten years and that is what will make them so unique when they leave him, the fact that we have chartered the lives of two companions across an entire decade. Even those companions that felt as though they travelled with the Doctor for a long time (Jamie/Tegan) probably only spanned a handful of years. Amy commits to being a bridesmaid and Rory agrees to work full time…real life is beginning for these two and the important thing is they like it. That moment that Steven Moffat was talking about in DWM that encapsulated the Doctor/Amy relationship was probably referring to the scene on the river (I’ll get to that in a second) but I felt the quintessential moment came when they faced the portal in the goods lift. They share a cheeky smile and confidently take hold of each others hands and jump through the looking glass. It's childlike and magical, capturing that same feeling of stepping into the unknown together in The Eleventh Hour. There was a time when living without the Doctor and the thought of a normal life would drive Amy crazy but after building a life on Earth (one which the Doctor gave them to protect them – The God Complex – odd that seems to have forgotten that) it now feels like running away every time they step into the TARDIS. Just as they are ready to give this madcap lifestyle up this adventure reminds of what they are missing out on. It's Brian (wonderful Brian) who convinces them to go travelling again, pointing out that nobody else can do the things they have the opportunity to do. He makes an unspoken promise to get them home safely.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘There are soldiers all over my house and I’m in my pants!’

‘I’m running to you and Rory before you fade from me.’

‘Ohhh…portal to another dimension in a goods lift?’

The Good:

• From the opening scene it is easy to see that this going to be something a bit different to the norm. Imagine if (for some inexplicable reason) you hadn’t been watching Doctor Who for the past eight years and you saw all those glorious images flashing before your eyes? The temptation to zip over the Amazon and grab the last six seasons would be irresistible!
• It has been mentioned on forums everywhere that this episode has a distinct flavour of the Russell T Davies era about it and it's one that I happy to say is true. It’s not that I’m entirely aversed to Moffatt’s approach to Doctor Who (every episode in season 7a works for me to some extent) but I have gone in to some detail in my reviews about why I preferred the tone and style of the show under Davies’ reign. That mixture of the otherworldly and domestic that was so capitalised on during the first four seasons of the shows revival and gave us a unique and personal insight into the lives of the Doctor’s companions is back with a vengeance this week. Also prevalent in the RTD era were news reports from around the world to give the crisis a global scale, gloriously photoshopped footage worldwide with the latest threat added (remember Cybermen marching on the Taj Mahal?) and celebrities turning up to discuss the implications of the latest threat. There’s even a superfluous but not at all harmful gay reference. They are all present here (Brian Cox and Sir Alan Sugar’s cameos made me howl!). Is it too soon to have a nostalgic peek back at the Davies era? I don’t care, it gives me a warm feeling in my belly that things haven’t changed that much.
• There are good things and bad things about the ‘slow invasion’ but first and foremost there are the cubes. What a gloriously simple idea. It worked when Star Trek decided their latest big bad were going hulk their carcasses around in giant cubes and this is just as visually impressive. The idea of random black cubes showing up all over the Earth and waiting for us to adjust to them being there is gorgeous…the way we accept the new status quo is basically our downfall. When the Doctor says ‘that’s new’ it's worth considering that this is a genuinely original take on a hostile alien attack from a show that has been churning out those types of stories since 1964. There is a nagging paranoid feeling that they are just sitting there, observing us, waiting for us to lose interest so they can get on with whatever they are here for. Brian helpfully lists a plethora of possibilities and origins for the cubes in a scene that made me wonder if he should be the Doctor’s assistant. There is real tension when the cubes start to come alive (it helps that the effects are so vivid), each with a seemingly different purpose and power. By this stage the human race have started utilising them for all manner of fun and fruitful purposes (to pin notes on, to play golf in the office, paperweights, etc). The idea that this might all be a mass marketing scam screams of contemporary Who – there’s no way that would have been suggested in the old series which shows how cynical and capitalist we have become. When one of them began blasting away at the Doctor I got a real vibe of the Zeroids from Terrahawks! The fact that one plays the Birdie Song on a loop proves that they are truly devices of pure evil and the idea that they are basically slug pellets for the human race dropped on the Earth is one metaphor that made      me grin. Slug pellets? How rude!
• It would appear that Douglas McKinnon has been brushing up on his quirky camera techniques since he last helmed an episode (the gigglesomely action packed Sontaran two parter) and he approaches his latest episode with far more creative verve. The transition from month to month is imaginatively achieved, the scene folding over like the pages of a desk calendar. The way he makes inanimate cubes a credible threat has to be applauded.
• UNIT is back (and again bridging the Davies’ era they are still set up beneath the Tower of London) and headed by a new scientific advisor in the shape of Kate (Lethbridge) Stewart played by Vanessa Redgrave. The scene where we learn her identity gave me goosebumps – not for anything as silly is making Downtime canonical (I wasn’t that keen on it) but because it was such a loving tribute to the Brigadier’s character and a respectful way for his presence to continue in the series long after Nick Courtney’s tragic death. Redgrave plays the part with a gentle urgency and it would be lovely if we could see much more from this character. She’s very easy to like. Plus isn’t it great the way the scene so effortlessly shifts tone from urgency to poignancy and back to urgency again during her fathers reveal. That’s a confident show for you folks, I haven’t seen moods turned on a sixpence this fearlessly since Buffy.
• Love the fact that The Power of Three takes place before A Town Called Mercy (or rather it takes place before and after A Town Called Mercy) as the Doctor mentioned Rory leaving his phone charger in Henry VIII’s bedroom during their Wild West adventure which is seen in this episode (Rory even has hold of the charger just in case you didn’t get it). Moffat loves his timey wimey madness and this might just be one of the most subtle and clever examples of the non linear nature of the Doctor’s adventures yet. Its there only if you have paid attention which makes it all the more rewarding.

 The Bad: 

• As good an addition as Kate Stewart was I missed the red berets and the Murray Gold’s UNIT theme. His new theme for them wasn’t up to much (mind you his quirky whistling score for the cubes was excellent).
• Why were they kidnapping people from the hospital? It’s a rather important plot point that seems to have gone missing at the script or even the cutting room floor stages of production. Since it is the very reason the Doctor, Amy and Rory move from the hospital to the alien spacecraft it is left surprisingly ambiguous. Are we supposed to assume they were just testing on them to see what made them tick?
• I realise it is an emergency but could you really just take your dad to work in a hospital without any questions being asked?
• How comes the alien portal just so happens to be in Rory’s hospital?
• The whole heart stopping idea is basically a load of smelly washing. Not only does it see Smith leaping about like a flea on a griddle mimicking the worst excesses of David Tennant’s performance (that’s the first time this year he hasn’t impressed me) but it also leaves us with the unbelievable notion that after the majority of the worlds populations hearts have stopped…they are just kick start again. Its about is nuts as setting fire to the sky in the last Doug McKinnon helmed script. A shame because everything was going splendidly until then.
• There’s nothing wrong with the make up or the performance (indeed Berkoff’s tired smile is chilling) but the function of Shakri is to spout a little exposition that could have been given to any old computer voice. After giving rewarding roles to some of Britain’s finest over the past seven seasons it seems a crying shame that someone of Berkoff’s talent drew the short straw.
• Okay, okay, okay…I finally see it. The sonic screwdriver is becoming a plot resolving liability. Its finally the magic wand Chris Bidmead claimed it was. A wave of the wand, a quick (albeit pretty) explosion and its all over. Was it worth all that delicious set up?

The Shallow Bit: Amy and Rory look practically edible in their finery as they visit the opening of the Savoy for their anniversary (until the Zygons involve themselves, explosions ensue and they wind up looking like smelly tramps).

Notes: ‘Some left me, some got left behind and some died…’ In timely fashion Brian asks the Doctor how his other companions left him, just one week before we will find out which of these fates will befall the Ponds. Maybe its misdirection and none of the above will apply. The Doctor mentions K.9 (although to my knowledge he has only recently started hovering).

Result: For making me not just like Amy but start to feel pangs about losing her from the show (something I thought would never happen) and for its unusual and creative approach to telling an alien invasion story, The Power of Three was on its way to being the first 10/10 of the season. All of the material right up until the last ten minutes is top dollar; confidently scripted by the ever improving Chris Chibnall, vividly realised by Douglas McKinnon and with enough kisses to the Russell T. Davies era to make my fanboy heart sing. We’re saying goodbye to the Ponds soon so it's quite timely that we should get this close to them and enjoy lovely moments exploring how close they have become to the Doctor and the effect that he has had on their lives over the past ten years. There’s some really poignant moments in here and its tragic that they should make such an exciting choice just before their departure. I love absolutely everything about the cubes, from the comments on society (how we initially panic, and then adjust and then start to utilise them) to their freaky abilities right down to the look of them gathered all over the world, watching and waiting. The minute Brian is kidnapped for no explicable reason the narrative stutters and grinds down to a disappointingly banal, sonic screwdriver waving conclusion that manages to waste an actor of Steven Berkoff’s talent in a minor role. This is one episode to enjoy the journey rather than the destination but I really hoped that this was going to be the knockout that would finally stick one finger in the eye of all of Chris Chibnall’s detractors (including me). It's 80% there. It’s a world away from the Silurian bollocks a couple of years back. Start from the end and work your way backwards next time because it’s the ending that often leaves a lasting impression. Cute, sinister and touching for the most part: 8/10

If Wishes Were Horses written by Neil McCue Crawford, William L. Crawford & Michael Piller and directed by Robert Legato

What’s it about: Fantasies start to come true…

Single Father: Seems like Sisko has little time for his imagination but still takes a moment to tell Buck Bokai that he was the greatest baseball player of all time. Is this the first time we see the famous baseball from Sisko’s office? 

GE Doctor: Bashir is still trying to part the red sea otherwise known as Dax's legs but she is keeping him at arms length which probably a good thing considering all the ladies she lists that he has been cosying up to lately. He’s probably had to order in extra STD medication given his outrageously out of control libido. What's hilarious is how he is convinced that Dax is playing a joke on him as she tries to peel off his clothes...somewhere underneath all that egotism lies a man who is frightened that everybody is taking the piss. How embarrassing for Bashir to have his lurid fantasy sex life outed in front of everybody in Ops. To be fair it doesn't seem that much of a surprise to anybody. 

Everyday Engineer: Lovely to see a Star Trek character doing something as simple as reading a bedtime story to his little girl. What a shame that Rumplestiltskin couldn’t have stuck around for a bit because he and O’Brien have some hilarious scenes together. They could have shoved him in a uniform and forced him to work on the engineering crew. He would be perfect for crawling into all the little crawlspaces. Imagine…every time O’Brien needs him to do something he could try and bargain his firstborn! When his figment tells him he is frightened of the unknowable things that is actually a very succinct point, not only would an engineer (someone who looks at the world technically) have an issue with something this intangible and inexplicable but he is also uncomfortable with the whole idea of the changelings too which are similarly enigmatic. O'Brien calls a spade a spade and he feels a spade should definitely be a spade, if you get my meaning. 

Nine Lives: It's interesting that it is pretty much after this episode that Dax comes out of her shell and starts embodying the sexuality of eight lives worth of experiences. Maybe she saw what Bashir liked in her and decided to give it a try, no matter how much she argues that her doppleganger is so submissive. If you skip forward four or five years you really wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Bashir’s fantasy Dax and the real one. Especially not when she jumps on Worf and starts romping him in the holosuite.

Unknown Sample: Odo gets in exactly the right mood for this episode with his own wonderfully cynical view on fantasies and imagination – that it is a complete waste of time. However when given the chance to flirt with his imagination and actualise it he has some cheeky fun throwing Quark in a jail cell and losing him a fortune at the Dabo table (well I’m sure those playing did most of that but I bet Odo gave it a little push). It's surprising how much this gruff character works in a comedy episode. 

Community Leader: When Quark suggests creating a holographic shape shifter for Odo to intermingle he declares the Ferengi disgusting to which Quark replies ‘it’s a living!’ He is expanding to try and appeal to all the hew-mons and has a vision of Ferengi selling family entertainment and fleecing them all rotten. He thinks that a Federation experiment has gone wrong and they’ve turned the station giant holosuite and naturally he conjures up a pair of buxom and scantily clad babes, one for each arm. When the Station is being destroyed around him Quark still has one of his ladies clutched to him whilst reaching for a bar of gold pressed latinum – faithful to the last.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Now you didn’t think that that would make me break in two and disappear, did you?’
‘Why are you fighting this?’ ‘Why am I fighting this? Why…am I fighting this?’

‘Oh fine! Now everyone knows my name!’
‘It's snowing on the Promenade!’
‘Yellow alert? Against our own imaginations?’ – trust Kira to point out the craziness of the situation!
‘I’m going to have ask you to refrain from using your imaginations!’
‘I’ve spend all my time chasing incarnations of the prophets, long dead lovers, Gunji jackdaws, blizzards…trollops!’ 

The Good: Don’t deny it, you find the baby Molly the cutest thing in the world too! The shot of her in her pyjamas gazing up at her folks and saying ‘Rumplestiltskin’ just makes me melt. The fantasies are of a childhood monster coming true, of a teenager wishing his hero was real, of a horny Doctor who wants to get his jollies with the frigid science officer and of a terrorist who conjures a horrific burning victim – whilst this episode is basically a bit of fun each of the fantasies whipped up is rooted in character. Bashir’s reaction to Dax salivating over him is hilarious. Odo gets some very funny moments on the Promenade coping with six centimetres of snow and trying to be gentlemanly with a genuinely demonic looking bird. The scene where all the figments sit around bitching about their creators is unusual but I love the idea of peoples imaginations confusing the hell out of them – that we wish for things that we don’t actually want in reality. Who ever said that human beings make sense? The ending is very pat but I do like the way Sisko manipulates his crew into whisking away the danger. 

The Bad: It's such a shame that they even bothered to tether on a boring technobabble plot to explain all of this but then I suppose DS9 is still Star Trek (the franchise) at this point rather than it's own unique brand that it would become. There’s a hilarious sequence where all the regulars stare in horror at the subspace fracture on the view screen that goes on forever. I think it was supposed to reveal that when they are in danger their imaginations (since they are watching them watch the fracture) are forgotten but it loses something in its execution. As they defeat the fracture the audience is swamped with a tsunami of technobabble (but at least Kira has the nerve to say ‘What the hell does that mean?’ at her own technobabble!). One odd thing about the first season of DS9 is that it keeps throwing out ideas that scream of being followed up in later seasons (Kai Opaka) and in this episode the entity even says ‘maybe next year.’ For a show that has a brilliant hit rate at following things up there are some remarkable oversights.

Moment to Watch Out For: Kira’s pyro nightmare is terrifying – imagine a man on fire running towards you like that?

Teaser-tastic: As soon as we meet Rumplestiltskin in the flesh you know this is going to be one of those TNG premises that DS9 tries out every now and again (see also Rivals, Meridian, Children of Time, One Little Ship).

Only DS9: The Quark/Odo scenes are so good I could just imagine a great sitcom with the two of them hanging out in the bar (ala the Coffee Shop in Friends) and bitching at each other. Frankly given the loose sexuality that goes on on this station I’m surprised they didn’t call the show Deep Throat Nine! It's very refreshing to have a Star Trek show that doesn’t like dull old strictures like duty get in the way of having a good time. Even Worf eventually gets his jollies on when he joins.

Result: If Wishes Were Horses is basically a load of old tat with a plot that is barely worth mentioning and yet the episode is full of insightful character moments, funny scenes, fantastic dialogue and some very interesting fantasies being brought to life. It shows the huge gulf between when DS9 tries something this nonsensical and when TNG and VOY do (which would just be dreadful in both cases – what would Harry Kim wish for, to sit in the Captain’s chair?). The three episodes that have gone down the light-hearted route this year have all tried to end on a moment of danger (and only The Nagus got away with it) and in this case I really wouldn’t have bothered. There is a terrific amount of comic mileage to be had out of the idea of peoples imaginations running out of control without having to resort to a dreary old technobabble hazard. A disposable episode that just so happens to be an enormous amount of fun for two thirds of its running time: 7/10

A Town Called Mercy written by Toby Whithouse and directed by Saul Metzstein

This story in a nutshell: A dusty town, a sheriff, a grudge, lots of guns and a face off a noon…can you guess the genre?

Nutty Professor: ‘It would be so much simpler if I were just one thing, wouldn’t it? The mad scientist who made that killing machine or the physician whose dedicated his life to serving the people of this town. The fact that I’m both bewilders you.’ Each episode brings fresh surprises with Matt Smith and I can honestly say that (unlike last year where I felt the character and the actor might have become a little too manic and clever-clever) I have had no complaints whatsoever so far this year. A Town Called Mercy devotes much of its time to giving the Doctor a moral dilemma to ponder on and Smith proves that he is no slouch during the dramatic moments, dumping the quiet menace and going for outright hysteria in some scenes (which, to his credit, he is not normally very good at). Every tic and remark and reaction feels distinctly Doctorish. To quote a song he’s got it, oh baby he’s got it! This is my eleventh Doctor and I love every second of his company in stories like this. He sees Keep Out as suggestions rather than instructions and rubs his hands with excitement at the thought of disobeying and seeing what happens. There is nothing more Doctorish than stumbling into a bar in the American mid west and asking for the strong stuff (tea, keep the bag in). Watching him being manhandled by the townsfolk was not only riotously funny but reminded me of Hartnell’s treatment in The Gunfighters. I love how he tries to run away from the Gunslinger and finds himself facing a handful of guns – as long as people are pointing guns at the Doctor you know he is doing something right. Within minutes of being in Mercy the Doctor has pieced together the various pieces of information he has been fed and figures out that the Sheriff is hiding an alien Doctor in his cells. When the Doctor rode off into the countryside in The Pandorica Opens I didn’t feel a thing because it felt like they were trying to make the episode feel epic. With a delicious Murray Gold score that accentuates the hero in him and the dust kicking back in Susan’s wake, this is a far more rousing gallop out of town and Smith just looks perfect straddling the magnificent beast (after Tracie he’s doing a lot of that these days!). The Doctor forces himself to look at the recorded images of Jex’s victims being tortured and the glint in his eye suggests that things are about to get very dark. That murderous rage that we saw bottled in the Doctor last week gets released this week and I’m glad that the writers chose to comment on his recent actions through Amy rather than simply ignoring it. Dragging a man to his death is not in the Doctor’s nature but you get the feeling of the weight of the horrors he has experienced in his long life and that people now have to be brought to justice. As Amy so succinctly points out he has to be better than that. I can imagine Paul Cornell fainting with shock when the Doctor not only brandishes a gun but cocks it and the camera rams right down its throat to stress the importance of the event.

Scots Tart: ‘Are you going to hunt down everyone who’s made a gun or a bullet or a bomb?’ Pleasingly, Amy is the voice of reason when the Doctor goes on a murderous rampage and pushes Jex into the path of the Gunslinger. He’s so unreasonable in his intent that she has to pull a gun on him and force him to save the scientists life. In a moment of blissful comedy (and by far the funniest thing Amy has ever done) she accidentally fires off two shots making a tense crowd even more nervous! There has been much discussion about how the Doctor’s companions are equals these days or how they even surpass him in terms of importance (a trend that has been pleasingly subverted this season) but this is one instance where he definitely needs a human intervention and it's one of the few occasions when Amy is the perfect companion for him. She reminds him of his core values. It's also one of the few occasions where I took Amy’s side over Rory’s who was happy to let the Doctor throw Jex to the wolves. When the Doctor travels alone for too long he grows hard and he needs his companions to keep him grounded in reality and to remember the cost of his decisions.

Loyal Roman: Despite a few action sequences Rory is almost completely wasted in one of his final stories. A shame since Amy is utilised so well here.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘He shoots peoples hats?’ – it was the delivery more than the line. This has made me laugh with every rewatch.

‘He’s called Susan and he wants you to respect his life choices.’

‘You cannot apply the politics of peace to what I did…’

The Good:

• Simon loved the opening narration, the southern drawl and the poetic dialogue. Although I was initially disappointed that a historical episode should so quickly introduce science fiction elements without even having the chance to establish its atmosphere, it's beautifully realised with more impressive POV graphics that seem to be the order of the day in season seven.
• There were plenty of moments when I was blown away by the breadth and imagination of Saul Metstein’s direction and the impressive opening crane shot over the town sign to land on the Doctor approaching suggests the cinematic splendour and adherence to Western conventions that was to come. There are glorious long shots of the town snuggled in the sun drenched hills that capture the feeling of space that all good westerns promote. The Gunslinger alone on a mountainous ridge is a memorably stark image. The Doctor galloping across the countryside could have skipped straight from a glossy western blockbuster and I really like the way the director always ensures that the sun is in shot whenever possible to accentuate the feeling of heat and dryness. He captures that golden glow of the American mid west that never seems to fade. The many angled approach to the Doctor trying to open the ship in the desert shows you the amount of effort the director is going to to keep this looking interesting – this could have easily have been a point and shoot in one direction job. The set up of the showdown at noon is one of my favourite set pieces, it's so beautifully shot to capture the essence of the genre (slow motion footsteps as the enemy approaches the town, the reverberation of the hands clanging towards destruction, the intense silence of the townsfolk waiting on the murder to come) and when the action kicks off it's as cinematic as we have come to expect – glass bursting from windows, clocks exploding, doors being blown off their hinges and a spaceship kicking up half the desert into the air with it!
• I was a massive fan of Farscape in the day and I’m one of the ten people that stuck with Stargate SG-1 until its dying breath and thought that the last two seasons saw something of a creative renaissance for the show and so the appearance of Ben Browder in Doctor Who is one of the items on my wish list ticked off. Whilst I would have loved to have seen him play a villain (in Farscape Crichton’s madness was so pronounced at times it was hard to tell if he was one of the good guys), he      approaches the somewhat thankless role of the town Sheriff with a great deal of dignity and pathos. He’s very easy to like from the off and that is all down to Browder’s down to Earth approach to playing roles. I never get the feeling that Browder is acting, it always feels like the characters that he plays are real people. In what should have been an awfully clichéd death scene, Browder makes the moment count.
• Adrian Scarborough is an actor that seems to be getting a lot of exposure of late (although I can never quite shake his rambunctious appearance in Miranda out of my mind) and with good reason, he’s a consummate actor and makes up an impressive triumvirate of performers that bring this story to life so memorably (along with Smith and Browder). On first viewing I was suitably lulled into a false sense of security and didn’t suspect Jex for a second. On second viewing I wondered how I had managed to miss the manifest of hints to the contrary. What I really enjoyed about this character was what he exposed in the Doctor – that he doesn’t enjoy having to deal with villains painted in shades of grey and prefers to dish out punishment to the black or white variety. Jex can play the suave man who saved the town and he can also turn nasty on a sixpence and start pointing guns (Scarborough is equally convincing playing whiter than white and Mr Bad Guy) and it’s a mixture of virtue and vice that the Doctor simply isn’t used to dealing with. Last week it was easy to condemn Solomon because he was so loathsome in his attitude and his actions that his murder at the Doctor’s hands almost felt cathartic. Jex is a far more interesting prospect because he doesn’t fit into a stereotype and the dramatic meat of the episode comes from whether to hand him other to his death or to try and protect him. There are good reasons for doing both and that is why the Doctor is so conflicted. The horrors of what Jex has accomplished can be linked to the despicable acts of biological experimentation that took place during the World Wars, it’s a very emotive link to the past that is easy to react strongly against. It might feel like a cop out that Jex should take his life and sparing the Doctor of having to deal with him (although he has pretty much made up his mind to let him go at this stage) but it feels right because it allows Jex himself to find some inner peace. For a show that is about the Doctor finding his core beliefs again its rather telling that ultimately it is the villain who gets to make peace with himself. It feels like a cleansing act, taking his life to be amongst the souls that he slaughtered. They are the only ones who can judge him ultimately. Perhaps they will be kind.
• I have been harping on about there being no pure historicals since the new series came back eight years ago and this is one of the first instances where I have felt that the story would not have been able to maintain itself without a science fiction element. I’m not the biggest fan of westerns (which is odd because I adore both The Gunfighters and A Town Called Mercy but then I did have to study them in more depth than any sane person should at college) and I don’t think the principles of genres would hold up in a modern TV schedule without an extra element to draw the viewers in. Had this been a visually sumptuous feast about rivals towns at war I might have fallen asleep (even the classic series needed much comedy and song to keep things fresh) but add a stomping murderous android and a moral dilemma into the mix and the setting becomes little more than luxurious window dressing. Juxtaposing the past and the future works a treat here.
• A massive round of applause for Murray Gold’s gorgeous score for this episode which would have conjured up the feeling of a western had there been no pictures at all. There would be no mistaking the genre as he bangs the drums and strums his guitar. I can’t wait to get this score on CD since it is pacy,      exciting and very atmospheric. The female vocals when the Doctor becomes Sheriff are silky smooth.  
• The Gunslinger appearing just over the ridge that Rory is hiding in reminded me of the sequence in Pyramids of Mars where Sarah is tucked away from a murderous mummy that is atop a leafy ridge. Different location, different eras but both recognisably Doctor Who doing what it has always done. Providing edge of the seat excitement.
• ‘You’ve got until noon tomorrow’ spits the Gunslinger. Well of course he does, it wouldn’t be a western otherwise!
• I loved the sequence in front of the Sheriff’s office where the townsfolk and the Doctor argue about the fate of Jex. This is exactly the sort of dramatic scene that was completely absent last year because the show was jumping about from location to location being super smart. It might slow down the pace but it gives extra depth to the situation and puts a face on the people of Mercy. It might seem like the first scene for the chop if the story was overrunning but its essential to make the town feel like a realplace. More like this please.
• The Doctor waiting around in the evening for the shootout the next day. It's surprising to hear that the writer was warned of from watching The Gunfighters (sacrilege, darlings!) because these anticipatory scenes in the latter half of both stories feel very similar.
• The final shots of the Gunslinger protecting the people of Mercy is just about perfect. He has a purpose at last.

The Bad: I know I’m not the first person to say this but as impressive as he looks there are an awful lot of similarities between the Gunslinger and the Rogue Simulants on Red Dwarf. A minor complaint, probably by the cast of the that show given they were bitching and moaning about Doctor Who in the season eight DVD commentaries regarding any similarities. It's probably fair for them to do so, the BBC has pushed Doctor Who to the forefront of their schedule and budget and have all but forgotten that Red Dwarf ever existed. My one complaint about his character is that by the end of the episode I was bored of watching him power up his gun and then powering it down again. When he finally starts shooting I was cheering! Is it my imagination or is the title sequence getting darker?

The Shallow Bit: Jex dresses rather like Toad of Toad Hall. Look at him as he gazes out at town whilst the Doctor, Rory and the Sheriff are off risking their lives for him. He’s the spit of him! That really tickled me. I have to point out that Matt Smith in a Stetson provokes naughty feelings in Simon.

Result: In what feels like a throwback to the pseudo historicals of the Russell T Davies era, A Town Called Mercy is an excellent drama and the first episode this year with a sustainable narrative that doesn’t have to resort to smart tricks to tell a story. Saul Metzstein definitely has the ability to bridge the gap between the two eras; capturing the sumptuous, blockbuster feel of Moffat’s tenure whilst pushing the actors to the forefront and giving them time to strut their stuff which was so vital during Davies’ era. This director is quite a find and I hope that it isn’t long before we see him helming more episodes. It might seem like a fatuous comment to make but Matt Smith gets to do some real acting for a change, the Doctor can’t hop about through time or set up the plot via a myriad of locations. He’s stuck in one place in a difficult situation and is forced to think through his actions and morality. It's such a refreshing change of pace and as a result it is one of Smith’s most impressive performances in the role; funny, thoughtful and dramatic. It's one of the rare occasions when Amy feels like the perfect companion for the Doctor as she gives his conscience a good rattling too. The episode playfully obeys the conventions of a western but puts a pleasing science fiction spin on most of them and almost uniquely in Doctor Who these days there is more intelligent dialogue than there is spectacle. Blissfully shot locations, a foot tapping Murray Gold score, drama, excitement and memorable performances from Browder and Scarborough; this is my favourite episode of the show since The God Complex last year: 9/10