Doctor Who: Season Six (First Half) Review

ATV TODAY’s Dominic Knight reviews the first half of season six of Doctor Who.

Warning: Contains spoilers for those who have not yet seen the mid-season finale A Good Man Goes to War.

Well folks that’s it for a few months – Doctor Who is over until the Autumn when the second half of the series will air. We left on something of a cliff-hanger as the identity of River Song (Alex Kingston) was finally revealed and what a shocker it was too. Okay so some people had worked it out already but for many they believed River to be the future wife of the Doctor – or even his mother. The fact it turns out she’s Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory’s (Arthur Darvill) daughter raises a lot more questions than it really answers. For example will the Doctor (Matt Smith) tell his companions of River’s ultimate fate? The two companions will (probably) quickly guess he has seen her future and they will want to know what happens to her.

The most negative thing about the first half of the season has been the overnight ratings. They’ve been lower than previous years and that’s given rise to a few tabloid stories about how Doctor Who has lost its appeal. Baloney! The fact that millions of viewers are recording it and watching later or downloading the show via the iPlayer shows that is simply not the case. It’s just pure and utter lazy journalism – with a hint of anti BBC bias for some – to suggest show. What the low overnight ratings do demonstrate is – as ATV Today has argued since Easter – is the time-slot sucks.  It’s summer, the evenings are lighter and surprisingly the weather has been nice. So what do the schedulers at the BBC do? Stick Doctor Who on ridiculously early clearly not learning the mistake of previous years than earlier time-slots equal lower overnight ratings. It really does sadden me when I see those overnight ratings – as although I know the final ratings are always much higher – Doctor Who deserves to do so much better in “overnight” terms. So at post 7pm slot is a MUST!

That aside the stories themselves have been enjoyable and for the most part well written. The opening two-part The Impossible Astronaut & The Day of the Moon were both brilliant. The early demise of the Doctor in the first part was well played out by all especially Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston. The “cheat” of the Doctor then turning up was revealed not to be a cheat at all as it was a “younger” Doctor and the “other” Doctor was still going to die. That’s a fate that Amy has been keen to try to prevent and as yet it still seems certain that future will happen.  The Silence were good villains and most effectively used in the second part, Day of the Moon. The guest cast were also excellent with Mark Sheppard proving a delight as the former FBI agent Canton while Stuart Milligan was unrecognisable as President Nixon. If there’s one issue I do have with the two-part story its the resolution of the cliff-hanger or rather lack of it. Day of the Moon doesn’t resolve the cliff-hanger at all but moves events along several months meaning we don’t get to see how the regulars get out of the situation. Moving events along does set up the nice ‘set pieces’ with Rory & Amy seemingly being killed and River plummeting off an office block – only to be rescued – but it still doesn’t really answer how they all escaped the warehouse.

The end of Day of the Moon leaves a lot of questions unanswered with fans left wondering who the little girl was, how she can regenerate, if the Doctor will still die in the future and whether the Silence were truly defeated. The next two stories though are less about the story-arc and more about separate adventures although both add, in small ways, to the overall arc. For example Frances Barbers cameos as the Eye Patch Lady or Idris hints at the true nature of River Song. The Curse of the Black Spot was a good, slightly creepy, story but was perhaps not as good as I was hoping. I can’t quite place my finger on why but after the stories conclusion there was a slight feeling of disappointment.

The Doctor’s Wife was a story many fans were looking forward too. Again the title – like The Doctor’s Daughter – was a bit of a cheat in some ways. However, Suranne Jones performance as Idris was superb and the revelation she was the Tardis in human form was also a good, neat twist. It allowed for a few funny moments and good exchanges between the Doctor and his ‘TARDIS’ especially her quips about pushing the doors open. We were promised to see more of the Tardis than before but all we saw, really, was corridors. That’s hardly exciting and doesn’t really add anything more to the series – the original series had endless TARDIS corridor scenes but it also offered us views of other rooms in the Tardis and that’s what I was hoping The Doctor’s Wife would offer. The only other minor quibble with the episode was the easy defeat of House – it seemed a little too easy. Otherwise The Doctor’s Wife was an enjoyable story with an excellent performance from Suranne Jones.

The Rebel Flesh & The Almost People was a good, solid morality tale but it also explored the darker side of human nature and our own. The juxtaposition of having the Human Miranda (Raquel Cassidy) as a warmonger but the Flesh Miranda as a peaceful version demonstrated the different areas of each of our own personalities. This was also explored well with the Human Jen (Sarah Smart) and her more vicious, vindictive and murderous Flesh version. Certainly the two Miranda and Jen character wise were well developed and used with the other Human/’Flesh characters sometimes there just to bump up numbers and to be “killed off”.

As stated above the story also serves as a morality tale about how far humanity is prepared to go to get want it wants – cheap labour. It also strays in the moral question of what is life and where does it begin? Quite deep areas for a Doctor Who story to cover but this is a series than can easily cover such adult and deep issues and not feel in anyway preaching or patronising. The story is also a throwback to the original series favourite “base under attack” but it was a tense and sometimes dark story. Again if one was to make any quibble with it the poor CGI monster at the end would be the only real thing to pick apart. The cliff-hanger was also a shocker – who saw that coming? Sure most viewers probably guessed the two Doctors had swapped but Amy was in-fact a Flesh substitute? I for one didn’t see that coming.

And that brings us nicely to the mid-season finale A Good Man Goes To War. We were promised a game-changing mid-season cliff-hanger and we got that. The revelation of River’s true identity changes everything especially her relationship with Rory and Amy. It also opens up a whole barrel of questions such as; was the little girl in the season opener River? Or was it someone else? A Good Man Goes To War finally gave Frances Barber something more to do than a few seconds cameos as in her previous appearances and her character finally got a name – Madame Kovarian. Precisely what she really, truly, wants with Amy’s child still remains a mystery as does her true identity. Is Kovarian really human or something else entirely?

A Good Man Goes To War promised much and offered a lot back in return. We had a Silurian living in Victorian London solving crimes, a Sontaran nurse and the return of Dorium from last year’s season five finale. There was brief appearances by the Cybermen, lots of Silurian’s and Judoon as the Doctor called in his debts – but was once again tricked by Madame Kovarian. It’s another episode, like so many penned by Steven Moffat, that requires multiple viewing to truly pick up on everything that is going on. Moffat’s plots are undeniable more complicated but a show that makes your mind work is a good thing. Who wants a series that you don’t have to think to watch? Who wants a series that delivers all the cliff-hangers, twists and turns on a plate and signals them beforehand? Moffat’s Doctor Who is more complicated, full of twists & turns and that’s a good thing. If you want light and fluff then watch the repeats of My Hero on UK Gold. Doctor Who, under Moffat, is a series that requires you to pay attention and quite right too!

You can post your own comments below.