The Day Of The Doctor Review

This review may contain spoilers.

Isn’t it strange to think that the 50^th Anniversary of Doctor Who is being celebrated across the world even in cinemas after a risky reboot back in 2005?

SYNOPSIS - We have the main story of the Doctor Who villians The Zygons (monsters that can mimic people around them but otherwise look like big, ugly creatures) breaking free from oil paintings in London’s National Gallery to take over the world. Meanwhile, Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor jumps through a time fissure to team up with David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and save the day. We also have the ‘War doctor’ (John Hurt) who was about to trigger a weapon of mass destruction named ‘The Moment’ which would destroy Gallifrey. The War Doctor has a chance in this episode to meet his future incarnations and see first hand the consequences of his actions.

I enjoyed the 50^th anniversary special a lot, especially the interactions between the three doctors. There were great performances all round. The current incarnation, The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) was his much-loved wacky self, while David Tennant brought back all the quirks which made us love his doctor so much. Added into this is the brilliant John Hurt, whose Doctor seemed to be the only adult among the three of them.

Watching the tenth and the eleventh Doctor on screen was great and what many people were looking forward to. They make fun of one another and it is brilliant to watch. With Tennant's doctor it feels like nothing has changed at all and he seemed to come back to the role easily.

I think that this episode overall satisfied the fans. This episode covers all that happened in the gap where Doctor Who was not on the TV and exactly what went on. 

A great performance from Billie Piper also, but, if there was one thing I could change it would be that The doctors were able to see and interact with Rose…even though it wasn’t actually Rose. Never Apply Logic to Who.

It was a good celebration of 50 years and a way of looking back with a cameo from the brilliant Tom Baker, but also looking forward as there was a glimpse of Peter Capaldi as the 12^th Doctor.

As a drama, it does all that you can ask for – it's funny, moving and exciting.

Wow. 50 years. Happy Birthday Who. I look forward to another 50.

The Escape Artist - Final Episode

Though it has divided opinion, I personally enjoyed The Escape Artist. There were many twists in the final episode, which means that I have waited till after the drama has finished until I put up my review. If you are yet to watch the finale, it may be best to leave this until you have seen it.

In this episode, I was surprised as I thought it would all be centred around the trial of Liam Foyle for the murder of Will’s wife, Kate. Instead, in another twist, the case was thrown out of court after the first ten minutes of the episode due to insufficient evidence.

Meanwhile, we see that Will somehow feels that he’s let Jamie down. During this episode Will reaches out to men who he’d previously represented in order to carry out some sort of dodgy operation. Later, he and Jamie return to the cottage where they go fishing in the rock pools, little did we know at the time that the knife used to gut the limpets would have such a profound effect. While travelling to Scotland, most likely for a job interview, Will is soon seen following Liam as he finds him at a country house. As the two argue whether or not Kate died slowly, It is revealed that Will was taping their conversation in order to get a confession. When the two come to blows, Will ends up stabbing Liam with the knife that he’d previously used at the cottage. Though the cut is minor, Liam starts to have an allergic reaction, assuming that this was from something that was left on the knife.  Instead of letting Liam to die, Will phones the emergency services who talk him through how to administer the shot that would save Liam’s life. But, Liam emerges from his attack and attempts to kill them both when he knocks a lamp over and ends up setting fire to the whole house. Even though, Will is able to carry them both out of the house, Liam ends up dying in hospital.

The end of the episode sees Will on trial for the murder of Foyle. Will decides to defend himself and infuriates the judge several times during the trial. The central question would be whether or not Will knew about Liam’s allergy and if he’d accessed his medical records at some point while defending him. Elsewhere, Maggie comes to supposedly to ask Will a legal question, but it seems as if she has more on her mind than just that. The ending plays out with a few final twists which I don’t think many people saw coming.

The Escape Artist definitely split many people and their opinions throughout the series. One thing I think everyone can say about The Escape Artist is that it was very well directed by Brian Welsh. The sequence involving Will’s stalking of Foyle was incredibly shot and really made me feel tense, but on the edge of my seat.

Tennant portrayed Will as a smart and emotional man and we saw  both of these characteristics.

Overall I very much enjoyed The Escape Artist, every time an episode finished I just wanted to see what was going to happen next.

What did you think of The Escape Artist? Leave a comment below.