Doctor Who: Series 7: Nightmare in Silver Review

Hello everybody and welcome to my review of Nightmare in Silver.

When Neil Gaiman wrote "The Doctor's Wife" in 2011, he created a fantastic tale that was pure, quintessential Who, which enhanced the very premise of the series and was the absolute standout episode of Series 6. Naturally, anticipation has been high for Gaiman's second story, especially since it features the Cybermen. It's a shame then this episode proved to be something of a disappointment.

Picking up from the amusing cliffhanger at the end of "The Crimson Horror", the Doctor takes Clara and the kids (Angie & Artie) to whom she is nanny (after they sort of blackmailed Clara into taking them with her) to an extraterrestrial theme park, which they soon discover to be full of Cybermen. After Angie & Artie are kidnapped and the Doctor is partially infused with Cyber-technology, Clara must lead a military platoon against the Cybermen, who are now more powerful than ever.

This sounds like a decent premise, but unfortunately there is too much going on in this episode and most of the plot threads don't properly come to fruition. The biggest problem are the children, Angie & Artie. Putting aside the fact that the child actors aren't very good (I'm sorry but I have to be honest here), the characters themselves are just frustrating to watch. Angie in particular comes across as extremely unlikable. I don't care how dilapidated the theme park looks, if I were that girl, I would be far too amazed at the fact that I just TRAVELLED IN TIME to care about whether or not my phone had 3G. Artie is just an empty vessel, there's nothing interesting about him whatsoever. Thankfully these two are benched for the rest of the episode a quarter of the way in after they are given Cyber ear pieces. Maybe Gaiman became just as annoyed with the children as I did (though that doesn't really excuse him for writing bad dialogue for them, sorry again).

The guest stars are a little mixed, Tamzin Outhwaite has a pointless role as the leader of the military platoon, who is killed just as her character is given something to do. Warwick Davies gives a good performance as Porridge, but he doesn't get enough of a purpose to be onscreen until the end, which admittedly was kind of a surprise, though the moment when he asks Clara to marry him was quite forced and came out of nowhere. Jason Watkins fares quite well as Webley to begin with, but his character just fades off the map after he is infused with Cyber technology.

The Cybermen themselves are a mixed bag. While the new design looks very cool (miles better than the "Mighty Morphin" Daleks re-design from Victory of the Daleks), they aren't given enough screentime which diminishes the impact of their new abilities. There are some chilling moments. but they're few and far between. It's also frustrating that Nicholas Briggs only gets a few lines of dialogue, and even then it's the same sentence repeated. The Cyber-Mites are really creepy and they're a good evolution from the Cybermat's, which in honesty looked a little clunky.

The best thing about this episode is the Doctor's mental battle with the Cyber Planner/Mr Clever. This allowed Matt Smith to give a great performance as he switched back and forth between the two personalities, the Cyber Planner allowing Matt to turn the creepy dial up to eleven (see what I did there). This definitely reminded me of Superior Spider-Man, except here, the malevolent persona was rightly expunged in the end.

Jenna-Louise Coleman got some funny scenes here as Clara commanded the somewhat incompetent squad of soldiers against the Cybermen, though it did make Tamzin Outhwaite's character even more useless. While I've heard some criticism that this is out of character for Clara. I see it as more of an evolution of the character. Clara has faced down some pretty scary monsters in this series so it's natural that she would eventually become more confident in the face of danger.

The production aspects of this episode are mixed. There's some sloppy editing in places and the effect of the Cybermen disintegrating when they're hit with a shot from Clara's gun looks pretty lacklustre. The shot of the army of Cybermen however looks great and it gives the episode a much needed epic scope, and the props and make-up are very good, particularly the Cybertech on the Doctor's face, and of course Murray Gold's music is awesome. I'm glad that the theme of the Cybermen from Series 2 is still there, even if it has been changed up a bit.

Overall this was an ok episode, though by Gaiman's standards, it was quite an anticlimax. Every writer produces a dud now and again though, it's just a shame that it had to be this one...

Score: 2.5/5.0

Doctor Who Series 7: The Crimson Horror Review

Full spoilers for the episode follow.

Hello everybody and welcome to my review of The Crimson Horror. I realise I've fallen behind a bit in my reviews for Series 7 (tbh I've been falling behind on all my reviews). I'm sorry for the delay and I'll try and get my reviews of the previous two episodes up as soon as I can.

So far I've enjoyed this series as a whole. Jenna-Louise Coleman's Clara Oswin is easily a more interesting and compelling companion than Karen Gillen's Amy Pond and Matt Smith has really benefited well from the more serious, yet still fun tone of this new series.

So far though, none of the episodes have been able to re-capture the fun factor that I had with the series premiere, The Bells of Saint John, and after the admittedly disappointing "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS", I was a little worried. Thankfully The Crimson Horror delivered on that aspect in spades. This was a very fun episode.

The first half of the episode is from the perspective of the Silurian detective Madame Vastra her human wife Jenny & their butler, the Sontaran known as Strax. I've always had a fondness for these three characters since their first appearance in "A Good Man Goes to War" and they certainly haven't worn out their welcome yet. Jenny plays a bigger role here than in previous episodes and Catrin Stewart is clearly having a lot of fun with the role. This comes at the expense of Madame Vastra who has less screentime but that's forgivable as the character of Jenny needed fleshing out and Vastra has had enough exposure in previous episodes, and of course Neve McIntosh gives a good performance as the character. Strax meanwhile is just a bundle of fun and Dan Starkly is an absolute riot in the role, providing many of the episodes laughs.

Don't take this to mean that the Doctor & Clara don't feature prominently, once they appear we have a nice, old timey flashback to how they became mixed up in this story. Matt Smith is really coming into his own now as the titular character and the same applies to Jenna-Louise Coleman, these two have such great chemistry, and their Yorkshire accents weren't that bad either.

For the villain, we have Dame Diana Rigg as Ms Gillyflower, who along with her prehistoric leech companion, Mr Sweet, plans to cover the skies with his venom. Dame Diana turns in a grade-A performance as the villain. Ms Gillyflower is certainly a villain we love to hate by the end of the episode. She is joined by her real life daughter Rachel Stirling, who plays Gillyflower's disfigured daughter, Ada. This is in fact the first time these two have acted alongside one another. There's plenty of intensity in their scenes together and I really came to like the character of Ada after a while. Her scenes with the Doctor were very emotional.

The direction by Saul Metztein was very good and the same applied to Murray Gold's music (though in honesty Murray Gold always delivers). Mark Gatiss provides a witty script with plenty of laughs sprinkled in, though they are balanced by some dark and serious moments, such as the revelation that Ms Gillyflower experimented on her daughter so she could develop an anti-toxin to Mr Sweet's venom. What a nasty old woman!

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. It wasn't perfect, there were a few problems (the Tom-Tom joke wasn't that funny and it felt out of place with the Victorian setting), but nothing glaring enough to ruin this joyride...

Score: 4.0/5.0

Iron Man 3 Review Posted!

Well here it is, my video review of Iron Man 3! It took a little longer than I thought, but it's here finally. I hope you all enjoy the review :).

Here's the link.
http://youtu.be/WgC7HAa6DJQ

Oh and stay till the end of the credits ;)...

*Updated* The Rumour About John Hurt's Character in the Doctor Who 50thAnniversary Special

*Update* It is now confirmed that Hurt will be playing "The Doctor" (that's all that the titles said anyway). This has sort of shot my theory in the foot as the Eleventh Doctor is shown to be aware of Hurt's Doctor, which means that it's unlikely that his character will attempt to deceive the Tenth & Eleventh Doctor's in the special, though he could be messing with their memories, but that's just speculation. It pleased me to hear the Valeyard mentioned by the Great Intelligence however, and maybe it's still possible that the John Hurt could be playing the Valeyard.

 

*Original article*

So there's a rumour going around that John Hurt is actually playing the Ninth Doctor in the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who. Apparently the other Doctor's have forgotten that he existed due to Hurt's Doctor supposedly being the incarnation most involved with the Time War. If this is true, then that would make Christopher Ecclestone the 10th Doctor, David Tennant the 11th Doctor and Matt Smith the 12th Doctor, which would mean the Doctor would only have one regeneration left due to Time Lords having thirteen total incarnations. Naturally, this has got a lot of the fanbase riled up, but I think there is more to this than meets the eye.

Hurt has said in an interview already that he plays "part of the Doctor" in a "kind of trinity", so that confirms that his character is at least closely tied to David & Matt's Doctor's. But that doesn't necessarily mean he is the Ninth Doctor. This "rumour" is likely an intentional leak to stir up anticipation for the special, and very likely is a fake-out.

It's my theory that Hurt's "Doctor" will eventually be revealed as the Valeyard, an evil version of the Doctor that exists somewhere between the Doctor's latter incarnations. The character first made an appearance in the Sixth Doctor story "Trial of a Time Lord". Toby Jones previously played a version of the character in the Series 5 episode "Amy's Choice". He will likely appear to the Tenth & Eleventh Doctor's claiming to be the Ninth Doctor in a bid to manipulate them for some unforeseen scheme, revealing his true identity near the end of the special.

I know this is all speculation on my part, but it would certainly make sense for a twist and I don't think anyone can argue that the Doctor being the main villain (in a way) would be an awesome idea, especially if it's John Hurt playing the role. Steven Moffat has stated that the special is about looking forward as well as looking back, and perhaps one could interpret that as resolving past aspects of the series that are still prevalent today. There's already enough evidence to suggest that Moffat is looking to resolve the Doctor/Rose relationship so it isn't too much of a stretch to assume that he's also seeking to shed more light on the events of the Time War.

Besides, this story was originally reported by The Sun, so I think we should take this with a pinch of salt anyway ;)...

Iron Man #8 Review

Hello everybody and welcome to my review of Iron Man #8. The conclusion to the Godkiller story arc. I actually forgot to do this review until I saw Iron Man 3 a few days ago so I apologise for the delay (and I will definitely be uploading a review of Iron Man 3 to my Youtube account so look out for that).

Though I will continue to collect this series, I'm going to take a break from reviewing it as I've quite clearly been falling behind. I'll make sure to do a full review of the next story arc on my Youtube account once it concludes...

Synopsis:

Death's Head engages Tony Stark in battle, pounding the arena floor and hurling stone columns at him. As they fight, Tony asks what happened to the rule of no enhanced combatants. Death's Head responds that he is not using his upgrades and is fighting as nature intended him, despite Tony yelling at him that he's a 30-foot robot.

Meanwhile, 451 heads to a hanger with the Voldi Heart in his hand. He recalls "the other thing" and reactivates the Iron Man armour, informing P.E.P.P.E.R of Tony's dilemma. He also asks that the A.I assure Stark that what's about to happen is for the best, before he leaves in a starfighter.

Back in the arena, Tony is keeping his distance from Death's Head, who decides that chasing Stark around the arena is "undignified" and asks him if he's familiar with the game of dodgeball, all whilst holding a giant rock in his hand. Just then the Iron Man armour bursts through the ceiling, immobilising Death's head with a single blast. As Tony thanks P.E.P.P.E.R and suits up, the Supreme Justicar declares that the trial is forfeit due to this intervention, ordering the drones to kill him.

Tony flees the ship, instructing P.E.P.P.E.R to plot a course to his portable armoury. He then contact's said armoury and requests that it prep the "warp homers". Tony arrives at the armoury shortly and attaches the warp homers, engaging the drones in combat, who don't have anything to say except "heretic!" (What riveting conversation they must make.)

Back on the Voldi starship, Princess Veritina is viewing the fight in the arena with glee, remarking that perhaps Tony could "scour his face of that keratin with some form of sharpened implement" (Really? what a radical proposition?). She then notices a group of giant robotic beings, the Star Giants & the Celestial's. One of them fires an energy beam through the skylight, destroying that section of the ship and killing Veritina instantly.

Shocked at the arrival of these giants, the Supreme Justicar makes her way to the room containing the Voldi Heart, only to realise it's been stolen. Tears in her eyes, the Supreme Justicar tells her aide to evacuate everyone from the ship, while she holds off the threat.

P.E.P.P.E.R detects that the Tear is under attack from something. Since there's no way to relay this to the drones (whose sole directive is to "annihilate heresy") Tony asks her to get them back to the ship. As they head back, the drones suddenly cut out. 451 appears in the form of a giant, holographic head in an attempt to halt Iron Man, saying he should stay
clear, but Stark just flies through him. As he accelerates towards the ship, 451 explains to him that the Voldi used the Heart as a cloaking device to hide themselves from the many races they took power from. He needed the Heart for some unknown purpose and attempts to validate the genocide by comparing the Voldi to leeches.

Tony arrives to find the Voldi Tear utterly destroyed, with no survivors whatsoever. 451 apologise to Iron Man and reveals that he has been using Stark for quite some time. Tony realises that it was 451 who drew him here with the robot fleet and 451 who tipped off the Voldi as to who he was. As the droid leaves, he repeats what he said last issue, "it's not enough to watch, eventually, you have to act". After a brief pause, Tony declares to P.E.P.P.E.R that the killer is going to pay...

Thoughts:

Blimey, this did not go the way I was expecting. After two issues of upbeat humour in the face of otherwise deadly circumstances, the ending of the current story arc is kind of jarring, then again that's likely Kieron Gillen's intention.

With the end of this storyline, we now have a brand new addition to Iron Man's rogues gallery, 451, and much of this storyline depends on whether or not he's an effective antagonist. We don't know his full motives for stealing the Voldi Heart and so that makes him difficult to judge as a character, but his creepy, manipulative demeanour and utter ruthlessness certainly counts in his favour as a villain, not to mention the fact that he just committed genocide.

The art by Greg Land is mixed. Though I enjoy his work more than most, there were a few too many unpolished pages here, particularly when the action shifts into space. Speaking of action, the fights are certainly exciting. The Star Giants & Celestial's certainly looked intimidating.

While the last few pages indicate that this story arc has been mostly concerned with setting up the next one. I've found it very enjoyable to read. I like Gillen's voice for Iron Man and the next story arc looks to be very interesting. Hopefully Gillen will be able to deliver on the Secret Origin of Tony Stark...

Score: 3.5/5.0

New Comic Book Review Uploaded!

So here's my next Comic Book Review. This time I'm reviewing the first five issues of Mark Waid's Indestructible Hulk and I also took the time to talk about Marvel's reputation of making their comics mimic the movies, plus I wanted to put out a positive review of a recent series due to all of the negative comments I've made about Superior Spider-Man. I hope you all enjoy the review and please feel free to comment as I'd love to hear your opinions...

Here's the episode link :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5Phyr2R_Jg

Superior Spider-Man #8 Review

Hello everybody and welcome to my review of Superior Spider-Man #8.

Synopsis:

At the H.E.A.R.T clinic, Dr. Elias Wirtham, aka Cardiac, returns with Otto Octavius's Neurolitic Scanner. He reassures Amy Chen as he fixes the device to her head that it is a magic helmet.Wirtham tells another doctor, Vargas, that the scanner is working, but he knows there's more that it can do. Unfortunately, the only one who knows how to properly work the device is it's inventor.

At Avengers Tower. SpOck is facing off with the Avengers while Ghost Spidey looks on. Peter makes the comment "not the face" which distracts Otto long enough for Black Widow to blast him in the back. Captain America then wallops Otto in the face with his shield and declares that it's time the Avengers got to the bottom of this.

Meanwhile, in her apartment, Carlie Cooper is on the phone to a mysterious individual who is apparently on a "leave of absence" thanks to her. She is (rightly) convinced that the Superior Spider-Man isn't the real Spider-Man, but she needs help from this person as she doesn't want to go into this half-cocked. The mystery person agrees to help her with the case.

Back at Avengers Tower, Otto regains consciousness to find the Avengers scanning him with various devices, the tests of which eventually prove to the Avengers that "Spider-Man"...isn't a Skrull, nor is he being possessed (what the hell?), which pisses off Ghost Spidey something rotten (I'm right there with you man). During the conversation, SpOck notices an abnormality in his brain patterns and asks to study some of the data firsthand. Cap states that SpOck is now on probation and if he steps out of line, he's fired (well at least the word was mentioned).

As the other Avengers leave, Black Widow asks to speak to SpOck in private. She tells him that she knows what this is about. She thinks that Spider-Man's change in personality has to do with the death of Silver Sable in Ends of the Earth. She also says that she's there for him as he now has "red in his ledger" (I wonder what that's a reference to). As the two converse, Ghost Spidey manages to take control of his right hand and draws a picture on the notebook in front of SpOck without him noticing. Widow gives SpOck a flash drive containing the data he wanted, Otto thanking her for the offer. As he leaves, Natasha notices the drawing by Ghost Spidey, but dismisses it as a doodle.

Otto makes his way to Horizon Labs, marvelling over his luck that neither Iron Man & Giant Man were present with the Avengers. Upon his arrival, he inserts the flash drive into his computer, but the data is "inconclusive". SpOck determines that he needs a better scan of his brain and he knows just how to get one.

Cardiac and the other doctors are prepping Amy for surgery when the alarm sounds. Cardiac suits up and confronts the intruder, who of course turns out to be SpOck, who engages Cardiac in combat when he refuses to yield the scanner. As they fight, Otto notices his invention and makes to snatch it off the girls head, with Peter trying his best to stop him. SpOck claims that he's in the right, retrieving the stolen property of Dr. Otto Octavius, but Cardiac interrupts saying that he's using the scanner to undo one of Ock's crimes. He explains to SpOck that Amy was in a car crash that killed her parents and left her with brain damage, the cause of which was Doc Ock's global warming scheme. Struck by a sense of responsibility, Otto fibs to the doctors and Cardiac that he has dedicated his life to studying Doc Ock's technology and he can work the scanner "like a virtuoso!" and perform the surgery himself.

The surgery goes off without a hitch thanks to Otto. Afterwards, he and Cardiac have a conversation in which they both admit they were wrong about each other, to the point where Otto even approves of the H.E.A.R.T clinic. He then asks to borrow the Neurolitic Scanner for a while, promising to return it once he's done. Cardiac agrees to this, notably calling SpOck friend. One of the other doctors then calls the two in, saying Amy wants to see the two of them. She thanks "Spider-Man" and offers him her toy, Mr Pinky Penguin. SpOck says he can't, but Cardiac reassures him that they've found her a replacement. A Spider-Man doll.

Later, at Horizon, as Otto muses over his "victory", Peter promises him it won't last as he will soon find a way back. Otto then responds with "no Peter, you won't", revealing that he can hear Peter now. He also reveals that "Peter" is in fact the memories of Peter Parker taking on a life of their own. SpOck instructs the Living Brain to prepare his equipment, as he's about to perform a "Parker-ectomy"...

Thoughts:

So in a storyline that was teased specifically with the word "Fired", SpOck doesn't actually get fired? From the Avengers or Horizon Labs? This is such a bizarre issue to review. It feels as though Dan Slott is cancelling out every good thing he does here with something bad. It's not the first time he's done this, the whole thing with Mary Jane in #2 was frustrating enough. Here though, it's in complete reverse.

After building up this showdown with the Avengers, having them scan SpOck and determine that he's fine is quite hard to swallow. I know the Avengers present aren't geniuses, but Slott makes them out to be monumentally stupid. SpOck attacked Captain America and refused to submit to the tests! Peter Parker would never do that and Cap should know that! It's such a massive cop out and what's worse is it could easily have been avoided by, oh I don't know, SpOck willingly submitting to the tests and not acting like a complete moron! Superior Spider-Man my arse! The scene with Black Widow is very mixed, the cheap gag at the end is annoying and the Avengers Assemble reference isn't exactly subtle, but I do like the way Widow opens up to "Spider-Man" and what could be done with this development going forward. Also it's good that SpOck remembers her words later on when he performs the surgery

There are some good things to enjoy about this issue though. I like that Carlie Cooper is still suspicious of "Peter" and the conflict with Cardiac is resolved in a very good way. the latter situation is very well written and gives Otto a much needed chance to grow as a character, and then it's ruined by the very next scene. I thought the whole point that Dan Slott was building towards was Otto being humbled by the girls gratitude for saving her life? Instead it's just used to massage his planet-scale ego, and then he moves onto attempting to get rid of Peter! Speaking of Peter, I was pleasantly surprised by the revelation behind his appearances here. This actually means there could be a lasting effect if Otto were to successfully perform his "Parker-ectomy". Which I suppose puts my fears to rest that Ghost Peter's presence in these past eight issues

I don't really have much to say about Humberto Ramos's artwork, there are some good shots here and there, though I was left confused by the Avengers vs SpOck scene, I couldn't tell if SpOck was dodging or being hit? While there is some very good stuff to be had in this issue, there's a lot of bad as well and it's just SO frustrating. I've been worried about the way #9 might be going for a while now and reading this issue hasn't helped at all...

 Score: 3.0/5.0