The majority of this story is intriguing, suspenseful, fun, well filmed, well acted and interestingly written with some great scenes. With an exciting and inventive climax and a substantial villain facing off against the Doctor this would probably have been a brilliant 10/10 episode but sadly the climactic scenes are a real disappointment for me.
After all the strong build up the alien threat turns out to be a pretty unimpressive and unexciting one that inexplicably allow the Doctor access to their technology and the Doctor very easily defeats the threat in what I think is a total anticlimax. Then this is compounded by yet another case (there are far too many in the Moffatt era) where all the damage done in the episode is undone by a convenient and unconvincing ability to put it all right.
The Doctor has one heart stop at the same time as numerous humans have their hearts stop. The Doctor then survives via his remaining heart long enough for Amy to restart his 2nd heart, which is fine. Some time passes while he goes to confront the threat and defeat it and then he uses the technology in the cubes which stopped people's hearts this time restarting them all. But if people had been left with stopped hearts for the time it took the Doctor to carry out his actions then they would certainly have been extremely likely to be dead or severely ill. Portraying people recovering instantly and the crisis as being averted was a bit daft.
It is interesting that the writer for this episode was future Showrunner Chris Chibnall and features something Chibnall was to be criticised for when he took over - the villain turning out to be disappointing and easy to defeat.
Prior to these poor scenes at the end there was a really good episode. It had the great addition of Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, the new head of UNIT and daughter of the Doctor's old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It had Rory's Dad, Brian, making another very welcome appearance. He is a great, engaging and funny character.
It had thoughtful scenes of dialogue as the Doctor discusses his travels and where Brian questions the wisdom of Amy and Rory risking their lives. It had the fresh idea of the slow invasion in the kind of world where people continue with their daily lives whilst ignoring a mystery and possible danger in their midst. It had really good production values and acting. It had quite creepy scenes with initial attacks by the alien invaders. It had the cubes themselves which were a fun idea. It had some good funny scenes of humour.
Taking all the positives of the whole episode but acknowledging the slightly silly and unsatisfactory ending I think this is decent but quite unexceptional for Doctor Who standards.
My Rating: 7.5/10.
After all the strong build up the alien threat turns out to be a pretty unimpressive and unexciting one that inexplicably allow the Doctor access to their technology and the Doctor very easily defeats the threat in what I think is a total anticlimax. Then this is compounded by yet another case (there are far too many in the Moffatt era) where all the damage done in the episode is undone by a convenient and unconvincing ability to put it all right.
The Doctor has one heart stop at the same time as numerous humans have their hearts stop. The Doctor then survives via his remaining heart long enough for Amy to restart his 2nd heart, which is fine. Some time passes while he goes to confront the threat and defeat it and then he uses the technology in the cubes which stopped people's hearts this time restarting them all. But if people had been left with stopped hearts for the time it took the Doctor to carry out his actions then they would certainly have been extremely likely to be dead or severely ill. Portraying people recovering instantly and the crisis as being averted was a bit daft.
It is interesting that the writer for this episode was future Showrunner Chris Chibnall and features something Chibnall was to be criticised for when he took over - the villain turning out to be disappointing and easy to defeat.
Prior to these poor scenes at the end there was a really good episode. It had the great addition of Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, the new head of UNIT and daughter of the Doctor's old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It had Rory's Dad, Brian, making another very welcome appearance. He is a great, engaging and funny character.
It had thoughtful scenes of dialogue as the Doctor discusses his travels and where Brian questions the wisdom of Amy and Rory risking their lives. It had the fresh idea of the slow invasion in the kind of world where people continue with their daily lives whilst ignoring a mystery and possible danger in their midst. It had really good production values and acting. It had quite creepy scenes with initial attacks by the alien invaders. It had the cubes themselves which were a fun idea. It had some good funny scenes of humour.
Taking all the positives of the whole episode but acknowledging the slightly silly and unsatisfactory ending I think this is decent but quite unexceptional for Doctor Who standards.
My Rating: 7.5/10.