Too true Allyn. Plus the reference was made in a novel which was published well after Virgin books had lost the license to produce official Doctor Who fiction and everything was being done surreptitiously anyway. So it's there if you want to believe it (and I do like the idea of the Doctor having a proper family rather than being loomed or whatever) but ignorable if that's not your thing.

I haven't really followed Big Finish much other than the Eighth Doctor and the Gallifrey plays, as you say because it's so expensive. Since the show came back, there are so many releases that you could easily spend sixty pounds a month to obtain everything. And that's before you've even considered whatever BBC Audio are doing and factored in the dvds of the classic episodes. As ever, I think that they'd probably make more if they reduced their prices on the assumption that more people would buy more of them.

I must confess that stuff like "X turns out to be the Doctor's brother" usually tends to put me off.

I'm not entirely up on Irving Braxiatel these days (Big Finish and I parted ways about five years back for financial reasons), but he's never been presented as a lazy contrivance like something out of Star Trek: The Next Generation where writers turned to long-lost relations of the characters because they needed a character story for an episode.

Partly, that's by design; there's very little interaction between the Doctor and Brax; by and large, the world of Benny is kept separate from the world of the Doctor, and Brax is a part of Benny's world. On the rare occasions that they have met, I'd say the relationship between the Doctor and Brax is much like the relationship between Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, respectively.

Is this animation the way the Bernice S stuff is going or just a one-off promotion for it?

Don't quote me, but I think it's just a one-off. About ten years ago, it was rumored that Big Finish was going to do a Benny film, along the lines of Downtime or Shakedown, but nothing ever came of it.

I'd love to see Benny turn up in the new series. As flustered as the eleventh Doctor is by River Song, a woman he hasn't slept with yet but will, I wonder how flustered he would be by Benny, a woman he did sleep with, way back in his eighth Doctor days. My dream Benny casting, much as I've liked Lisa Bowerman's voice, is Rachel Weisz. Of course, neither is Paul Cornell's original casting of Emma Thompson.

I thought that they did away with Erato's end as it was causing too many dirty jokes.

I must confess that stuff like "X turns out to be the Doctor's brother" usually tends to put me off. There's a point at which you can overegg the pudding in trying to produce links to existing canon and it comes across to me as a lack of confidence on the writer's part and a bit van Stattenish in dragging the Doctor down to Earth and burying him under the dirt of someone else's plot device. Here's the Doctor's daughter/mother/brother/granddaughter might be meant to make him more interesting but I find it often succeeds only in making him less mysterious - one of the reasons I avoided fan-fic in the wilderness years.

Ooooh, I like it in spite of myself as I've always shied away from the New Adventures/Virgin Books/etc malarkey.

It's quite Lara Croft (she even has etheric beam locators) and the robot is quite 2000ADy.

Is this animation the way the Bernice S stuff is going or just a one-off promotion for it?

Tachyon TV is on 'extended hiatus'?

It's the end of an Erato.

Very thorough review! Brings up a lot of interesting points. I'm pleased to hear some folktales (Red Riding hood) brought into the mix. But I really can't see River as the wicked step mother. I can see her more as a morally ambiguous good/bad witch, but we'll see how the character develops.

I have to disagree about Amy being a "sadomasochist", though I recognize that she's a bit of eye candy for the "dads" and such. I think it's interesting that she and Rory have reversed roles (compared to Rose and Mickey, for example). Rory is compassionate, while Amy is emotionally awkward. I don't think there's anything wrong with the traditionally male and female companion roles being switched up. It's actually quite refreshing.

I also have to disagree with your view on the microcosm vs. macrocosm. I think Moffat's focus on the smaller picture is absolutely brilliant. I am sick and tired of RTD pulling out all the stops and blowing up London all the time. It's OLD!! Moffat, however, brings things into focus. For example, that River/Dalek moment that you don't like. I think that is one of the most intense moments of the entire series. It creates a contrast against the alien alliance in The Pandorica Opens. While I think the alliance was mostly just for show on Moffat's part, the lone Dalek is not only an obvious "baddie" for The Big Bang, but it's in a scene that pits two of Doctor-Who's-most-wanted against each other.

Think back to Rose saving the lone Dalek from the Doctor in the first season. Then think of that same thing in The Big Bang. Just a little different, right? Moffat created a microcosm of Doctor Who in that Big Bang moment. The companion vs. the arch-enemy. It also shows the cowardice of the alien alliance against the Doctor, by revealing how weak just one of them is against River. Not to mention, River's voice, the Dalek's uncertain pause before begging for mercy, the unwavering hate on one hand and the fear on the other. I couldn't tell if River was doing it for the Doctor or for her own satisfaction. I tend to think it was the latter. Throughout that whole scene, I thought the sparks were visibly flying.

"ITV's been blown off the air!"
Hehehe!

Thanks for such a detailed write-up! Sounds like a memorable time.

i honestly love your writing choice, very unique.
don't give up as well as keep writing as it simply just good worth to look through it,
excited to looked over alot more of your current web content, have a pleasant day :)

Money Stock

Is the following from Dr Who and if so which episode? And I'm glad your life was miserable

What goes around, comes around.
Karma didn't take long to catch up to your
slipping ankles
into your
dripping lies that you
drowned your self in
slipping in the spit from your own mouth
falling into the words
spun and connected like webs to catch me and they
only caught you because you
sprung the trap too soon.

I think the point about a dramatic fizzle is well made. Big Bang may be dramatic and very enjoyable but it’s drama is entirely about rebooting the universe. Whereas the dramatic tension built up in the course of The Pandorica Opens was all about how would the Doctor escape from the Pandorica and oh dear Amy’s dead.

We therefore sit down to The Big Bang expecting a dramatic resolution to the previous week’s dramatic tension. And we don’t get one. We get a relatively quick solution (rather than resolution) which, although entertaining, is really little more than a quirk of temporal theory. Yes, it may be logical but it’s in no sense emotionally fulfilling.

And that's without even mentioning how spectacularly easy this inescapable prison is to open from the outside. Let's trap the Doctor forever in a prison which a child could open from the outside, locate that prison on a distant primitive world secured by two wooden gates and just keep our fingers crossed that no child finds it.

So, although I loved the Big Bang, I was still left with a vague sense of a anticlimax. Whereas, wonderful as the previous week’s cliffhanger was, if that cliffhanger had instead been, say, the revelation that, to save the universe, the Doctor would have to negate his own existence, then the Big Bang would have been a glorious climax to the season rather than just a glorious episode.

And I still can’t get my mind around the fact that, when Amy is woken up by her mother, her bedroom is still full of her Raggedy Doctor toys and pictures. If he never existed, then she never met him at age 7 so why are there still toys.

"Maybe his death is what causes the explosion, so the Daleks have to keep him alive at all costs by putting him in the Pandorica so he will be protected for ever."

If this were the case, the Daleks could never again try to kill the Doctor. Which would be a mistake in storytelling terms. Also, how do they know what happened to the TARDIS when he regenerated? (For that matter, how did the coallition get Amy's name and address?)

OK, so it's not exactly on topic, but I got a laugh out of this blogpost's comparison between the plot holes on Doctor Who with the laughably unbelievable series "World War II" on the History Channel.

http://squid314.livejournal.com/275614.html

(found via Boing Boing - I know, I know I should get a life ...)

@Supervoc7

4. The post-dancing past in which the Doctor DID exist more or less as we saw him and Rory never died or became an Auton. I'm fine with the idea that he remembers these things, that they all do...but did they happen? The events of (say) "The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood" were mostly unaffected by the cracks, but the Angels were swallowed by one and the Saturnyne came through another. In THIS past, how did those events unfold? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Maybe the Doctor thought of something else in this version of history?

Hmm, I'm thinking the first three episodes happened more or less the same way. There was no crack in Amy's wall, so there was no Prisoner Zero and no Atraxi and the Doctor didn't invite Amy along for exactly the same reason, but as a Timelord he is sensitive to alternate timelines, so he may have decided there was something odd about Amy anyway.

After Victory of the Daleks, since this version of Amy isn't as insecure, she doesn't make a pass at the Doctor so there is no need to grab Rory and they don't go to Venice - which is fine since the Saturnyne aren't there either. Amy's Choice could have played out the same way except with Rory being part of the illusion(s).

As for the Angels I agree he must have done something else - perhaps he was able to hold them off for longer using the extra soldiers that didn't vanish and
that gave him time to come up with something.

Hungry Earth and Cold Blood play out the same way except Rory isn't there so he doesn't get killed. As does Vincent And The Doctor where the only change is Amy doesn't cry. Ditto with The Lodger - the only change is no Engagement Ring.

None of the events in the last two episodes happened, since they're all tied to the exploding TARDIS. Maybe they just have a picnic next to the oldest words in the universe, which now say something infinitely more profound (like maybe "We apologise for the inconvenience" ;-)

@David Claughton: I'm still mulling this over but here's what it starts to look like to me. It seems as though 26th June actually has FOUR (potential?) pasts now:

1. The pre-Pandorica past in which there are cracks in time from an exploding TARDIS. The Angels fall into a giant crack, and the Saturnyne jump through one. This is the history we saw in season 5.

2. The cliffhanger past in which Richard Dawkins has a "star cult" and there are tropical penguins and such. Time and space are collapsing so history is mangled. The Silurians may have existed, but the Angels and Saturnyne didn't.

3. The pre-wedding past in which the Doctor is on the other side of a crack and "rewinding." Maybe 1970s Earth was invaded every week by aliens and the Master, maybe not, but we know Earth survived because of this idea that we'll catch up to the same present, with or without the Doctor.

4. The post-dancing past in which the Doctor DID exist more or less as we saw him and Rory never died or became an Auton. I'm fine with the idea that he remembers these things, that they all do...but did they happen? The events of (say) "The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood" were mostly unaffected by the cracks, but the Angels were swallowed by one and the Saturnyne came through another. In THIS past, how did those events unfold? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Maybe the Doctor thought of something else in this version of history?

@The Science Pundit: I'm sure you're right -- I'll have to watch it again. I remembered getting the impression that he was no one really special to the Doctor, that the Time Lord envoy knew more about the Master than the Doctor did, and that's why the later lines about the Master's character seemed so odd to me -- but maybe I wasn't listening closely enough.

@mattbartley: As I said above I have no problem with Amy, Rory, and the Doctor remembering these events...it's a little magical, I guess, but clearly they do remember them. I'm wondering more about whether and how they happened!

Regarding the Doctor-free universe and how it's remained invasion-free as well, I essentially agree with what David is suggesting (I think!)

When Amy brings the Doctor back (and I think it's important to remember he hasn't been erased from time like the things swallowed by the crack - he's trapped on the 'other side' without having had the chance to exist) the Doctor isn't just brought back as Amy remembers him, he's brought back with all his memories and experiences intact - so everything he has done, stays done.

I suppose it's like a predestination paradox - Amy's world is in one piece because the Doctor has 'always' been there to save and protect it (or, he 'always' will be). But he needs to be remembered by Amy for his timeline to fall into place alongside everyone else.

Whether or not that means everyone will now 'remember' what has happened in the past is another question...

though in "Terror of the Autons" the two of them appear to have little prior acquaintance, something which has probably been retconned since

I didn't get that impression. I got more the impression that they hadn't interacted in a while. I believe the Time Lord told the Doctor that "an old acquaintence" (or something like that) was around making trouble. But more importantly, in TotA, the Doctor casually remarked that vanity (or one of those related vices, maybe pride?) was "always the Master's weakness" and likewise the Master casually remarked that "curiosity was always the Doctor's weakness". To me that suggests that they already knew each other pretty well.

> I sadly suspect that we're being asked not to think too hard about the briefly Doctor-free universe [...]

My take on this (I'm going to avoid using the FW word, apparently it's childish - who knew? ;-) is that although in one sense the universe-without-the-doctor always existed, in another sense it was created on the 26th June 2010 as a result of the Doctor's own actions.

So the 26th June 2010 in some sense has *two* pasts, where the alternative without-the-doctor past suddenly appears having been created "retroactively". As such the alternative past, whatever it contains, must logically lead up to the same present as was already established by the "real" past.

Which is not to say that the alternative past cannot have some influence, for example Rory gets to live again thanks to the (entirely different!) alternative past where the cracks never existed, but in general major events in Earth's history must somehow end up working out the same.

(I like to think I'm getting quite good at this Fanw... errmm I mean devotee-based extemporising ;-)

I sadly suspect that we're being asked not to think too hard about the briefly Doctor-free universe. It's a little different, because in "Turn Left" you have 10 Doctors and then he dies, leaving a vacuum, whereas here he never existed at all. We might speculate that in his absence something or someone filled the gap. Another renegade Time Lord? Or perhaps someone or something else entirely? Did humans maybe rise to the challenge and defend themselves? Or were aliens drawn to Earth partly because the Doctor was around? It might be reasonable to suspect that the Master might have come to Earth partly to mess with the Doctor (though in "Terror of the Autons" the two of them appear to have little prior acquaintance, something which has probably been retconned since).

Other questions abound, of course, such as whether life on Earth would have started if not for the Doctor and Romana bringing Duggan back in time to slug Scaroth in the primeval mud, or whether the dinosaurs would have survived if Adric hadn't been on board the freighter in "Earthshock."

This is why, in my own review, I bring up the question of just how much of the Doctor's history has been erased or changed as a result of the universal reboot. Presumably "The Vampires of Venice" couldn't have happened in a crack-free universe, for example -- but if it didn't, then what was the point of him saving the day in the first place?

I kind of hope we see some of these questions come into play next season. I doubt they will, but it would be pretty interesting.

My partner called it the 'Alzheimer's season', and though part of me baulked at such a crass use of a serious debilitating illness, I can see where he's coming from. Because everything in the season narrative is about the fragility of and connection between identity and memory. Visual memory, false memory, lost memory; the loss of self, loss of relationships, loss of the broader social world (the universe even).

I loved it, even if some bits made no sense. And my memory, and identity, is stronger for having watched and enjoyed it so much.

"The Doctor has to revert the universe to its original state, only without himself ever having existed."

I also noticed this, without the Doctor there is no Earth. As the Doctor as a 'whole' would never have existed planet Earth would been overrun with alien life, dinosaurs, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans etc.

For someone who usually appreciates time-travel and its foibles, I am surprised Moffat didn't factor this in to the plot...

I enjoyed Turn Left (perhaps more so than the Big Bang) and it seems a shame to not acknowledge that episode (though ridden with continuity errors itself).

"It’s a measure of the quality of this show that we would immediately assume some clever timey-wimey trickery over a mere continuity blunder. And then be proved right."

Very well put.

I think Frank gets to the heart of it when he says that the Doctor's basically firefighting and that all the exciting conceptual ideas stuff we hear about - all those amazing ideas, tripping off Matt Smith's tongue! - are heard and not seen.

Of the 2 big concepts of the season that were supposed to lead us up to this moment - the crack and the silence - the latter is postponed and the former is dealt with by the Doctor flying the Pandorica into the exploding TARDIS due to a property that as Tom points out, we only found out about 20 minutes previously. (I guess we should have been warned when sometimes the crack was a gap between realities, sometimes it ate people, sometimes the Doctor had floss bits of chewed-up TARDIS from its teeth, and sometimes it spooged forth soft Rory-horny tentacles to consume dead bodies like a Hoothi.)

Yes, 'The Big Bang' is brilliant and exciting and hilarious and moving and full of big ideas, but a lot of it doesn't make a lick of sense.

RTD was lambasted for fairy Doctor and rewinding time, but I buy the amplified psychic power of a concentrating population more than I do than a Doctor summoned into existence through the imaginative recall of Amy Pond who is somehow special because she slept next to a crack for years on end (despite it seemingly eating the rest of the family first even if it was right next to her head.)

Good review though I disagree with a few points...

Tom you said:
"Russell T Davies was often (and rightly) said to have under-thought the logical, science fictional plot progression of his stories, giving his writerly attention instead to the drama and the emotional journey of the characters. But Moffat over-thinks his, to the extent where the science fiction is not so much a story that we're shown as a logical argument that we're told."

The idea that RTD didn't write well-plotted science-fictiony DW stories is a curious one (though one I have read before, which perhaps stems from New Earth which overshadows his other stories with its nonplot.)

I disagree that this ep of Moffat's is merely a "logical argument" rather than an action-packed story. There is a massive amount of plot in it but it all flows rather smoothly and also features four sequences across the 55 minutes which are really hugely emotional storytelling.

"But the very fact that it's necessary for us to make up our own answers is a testament to just how muddled the plotting in this story is. I'm all for challenging drama, but too much ham-fisted sci-fi exposition can distract, to the point where it ceases to be drama at all."

As far an unanswered plotpoints I thought (link) the only one was how River was at the wedding (though I did make up my own answer, then again she is a Woman Of Mystery.)

I don't think there is any "ham-fisted sci-fi exposition" - at one point Rory even asks what the Doctor is talking about and the Doctor provides the one-line, more poetic answer for him and the audience.

"Maybe this convoluted beast of a story would have worked if it had been spread out over multiple episodes, and the exposition was given time to develop more slowly."

I think it's partly so extraordinary because of the sheer amount of plot, all the twists and turns, and that these 55 minutes at the same time contain so many great character moments.

"We can whine all we want that the Pandorica’s restoration field comes out of nowhere,"

It is a poetic extension of the idea of the prison though.

"Yes, I understand that Moffat has chosen to play the long(er) game and postpone the answer to this question until next year. But while that's a refreshing and surprising way of handling plotting in Doctor Who, it comes at the cost of reducing The Big Bang to a dramatic fizzle. This isn’t Lost."

The myth of Lone Centurion, the Doctor spiraling the Pandorica to the heart of the TARDIS-Sun, the poignancy of the Doctor rewinding and unraveling, the triumphant return of the TARDIS - it was nonstop drama all the way and the final moments had the Doctor acknowledging the unanswered questions during the final uplifting scene so I don't agree there was any dramatic fizzle during the 55 minutes.

'I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to read it as an allegory for the Doctor being “forgotten” in the 1980s and subsequent “remembering” in 2005 by a generation of writers who had been affected as children by stories of the Doctor, making this the most metatextual Doctor Who story since Love and Monsters.'

That's an interesting interpretation and one that makes sense considering the Doctor appeared for one day in 1996...

I'm not going to bother writing a long detailed comment about how much I loved this program, or the entire series for that matter because you've done it so eloquently. I just wanted to say thanks for the GREAT review, thanks for being someone that adores this program as much as I do, and thanks for making my day. I've read way too many reviews, posts, and long drawn out negative remarks about this series, and this episode that I got tired of reading them. FINALLY someone who actually got it. Write on!

@Caboodle: I'm curious to know what crimes against canon you feel this season committed, and in particular how they could be worse than those committed by, say, "The End of Time" alone.

@Paul Kirkley: I feel the need to say that while I don't always feel the enthusiasm you do for specific episodes, I really enjoy reading your reviews and this was no exception. I think people "enjoy" shows in different ways; I would never waste time criticizing a show I didn't enjoy. :)

@Matthew: "Victory of the Daleks" had the unfortunate task of following two rather good, imaginative, and at times spectacular stories that were setting the tone for a new Doctor and new showrunner and not being anywhere near up to it. I'm down for "fun little episodes" any day but it didn't even work on that level for me. That said, I can't say it generated any "rage" for me. As for what this season added to the mythos: I'm crossing my fingers that we'll find out next season that the universal "reboot" changed a few things along the way.

It's saddening that every season/story seemingly has to be "one of the best ever" or "one of the worst ever", at least in the context of posting one's thoughts on a public forum. I was shocked at the time at the amount of vitriol unleashed on Victory of the Daleks, which clearly is not "one of the best ever" stories... but to this day I have zero comprehension of why a fun little episode like that should have generated so much rage.

Season 31 fails to be "one of the best ever" seasons in my opinion, because really, what does it add to the mythos, it's a whole lot of more of the same (albeit with a brilliant Doctorial debut and plenty of genius Moffatian dialogue). But there's a big gulf between that and "WORST. SEASON. EVER". What does it take to just pleasantly entertain some people?

I noted the same thing about the final shot of the sereis: Amy's smile — an unguarded look of sheer happiness and contentment, the likes of which we have not seen from Amy (or even little Amelia) throughout the series until this point.

I just want to say that I appreciate everyone who takes the time to write reviews for Behind the Sofa. I've come here religiously to read the reviews since the third series/season. They are well written, funny, and offer intelligent insights that sometimes make me view an episode in a whole different light. While I certainly don't agree with every review on here (I still cannot BELIEVE that none of you utterly BLASTED The End of Time! WTF? ), I am glad that they are there for me to read. I had exactly the opposite reaction to Neil Perryman's when watching Vincent and the Doctor, but I'd be a fool not to see that Neil nevertheless made valid points, and it was a shame that so much of the criticism against his review started to edge a little too much toward the personal. So, please keep it up, guys. Behind the Sofa strikes a perfect balance, as far as I'm concerned. I do miss Jo Anne Thrax's reviews though!

I'm enjoying it this year, but I'm sad to see the Moffat fans reverting to some of the zealousness of the RTD fans - that if people don't like it then they just don't get it or that they're just being contrary and that the series has moved on and if they don't like it they should just stop watching.

So far, though, the RTD fans are still in the lead for the title of objectionable Who fans - and continue to be in their hatred for the current run.