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Doctor Who: 2012 Season One episode 4: The Power Of Three.

Continuing from last week, if you’re living in a country that hasn’t seen these episodes yet, read with caution but I’m not going to give too much away. If you can watch it first, that’s even better

Nice to know that even Dr. Brian Cox finds himself out of depth with this story as passive black cubes arrive on the Earth. Meet your Yuletide pressies earlier cos I see a merchandise manoeuvre afoot or a box so to speak. Make sure you pick the working model.

There is a reference made to a decade passing for the Ponds before the Doctor comes back but assuming that previous references have been current, then surely this is ten years from now so why is newscaster Sophie Raeworth, Brian Cox and Sir Alan Sugar all looking contemporary?

Dr Who Poster 4.
The 3 timelordteers.

Back to the cubes. The one thing the Doctor doesn’t do with them is scan them with his sonic screwdriver. You would have thought that would have been the first thing he would have done. Considering he cleaned the Ponds house in less than an hour, he would make a wonderful house guest.

Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, now head of UNIT, has a wonderful calming influence and we really do need to see more of her in the time-line. Considering that the turnover of people in charge of UNIT is like a turnstile, having some stability here would be appreciated.

Having the cubes give people heart attacks doesn’t explain why Amy, Kate and the computer operator weren’t affected and yet the Doctor was. I would have to say that it might have been because other than the cube in the chamber, the room had been cleared but you would have thought the single cube would have affected them all, not to mention on the way to the hospital when they must have passed cubes out in the streets.

Mark Williams as Brian Williams also brings a stabilising influence as well as some typically British eccentricity.

We also have an explanation why the Doctor is attracted to the Ponds. It’s practically a safety blanket that he doesn’t want to give up. That’s not a spoiler, just an analysis of a scene.

The Shakri as the enemy is too quickly resolved. This is a real problem with bringing in potentially big bads these days. You can’t even inhale a breath or have a heart attack and they’re gone. How can they be true menaces if they can be so easily beaten? It’s making the series like a fast food diet. Quickly eaten. Quickly forgotten. Hopefully, this particular enemy, which appears to be older than the Time Lords, will be back with something a bit more substance (sic) as they did have some potential.

Despite my criticisms, the pace was such that you were carried through to the end but left wondering why it felt so short an episode.

 Geoff Willmetts

September 2012

 

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

4 thoughts on “Doctor Who: 2012 Season One episode 4: The Power Of Three.

  • I agree, the ending was far too quickly resolved. Given this episode was clearly designed to be the last hurrah for Amy and Rory, the cubes didn’t have to be a threat to the world, it could have simply been an alien race visiting to see what the all the fuss about earth is.

    I took the decade comment to mean that Amy and Rory had spent 10 years with the Doctor but had crammed it into three years in Earth time.

    Reply
  • Hello Aidan

    I thought next week’s episode was the Ponds swansong.
    Likewise, the 10 years reference. I thought it meant that was the last time they went travelling with the Doctor, else why would they explain to him Rory’s nursing job and Amy’s writing career??

    Geoff

    Reply
    • Fair point regarding the swansong/last hurrah. I guess it might depend on how next week’s episode will end as well. If it ends in tragedy, then this will be their last ‘fun’ episode.

      Ten years is a long time to be hanging around waiting for him to visit. I know they’re really pushing ‘the girl who waited’ but how come they haven’t aged? Neither has Brian Williams. Of course, you made this point in the post.

      I love how easily Amy can drift from kissogram to model/perfume creator to journalist so effortlessly. Perhaps my career will work in the reverse order of hers…

      Reply
  • Hello Aidan
    I guess it depends on how you define ‘tragedy’. The hints at aging and even without the TARDIS, the Doctor is long-lived, there would by necessity show how short human lives are. There is one possibility that the Ponds have got too much temporal energy and the Weeping Angels would target them if the Ponds went any more with him.

    The Ponds were hardly hanging around for him. They got their careers going than just twiddling their thumbs.

    I’ll arrange for you to spend some time away with the Doctor because it clearly turns his companions into go-getters in careers. I doubt if Amy saw being a kissogram as a life-long job.

    Geoff

    Reply

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