Doctor Who

“Rose” is the inaugural episode of the revived British science fiction series Doctor Who, which originally aired on March 26, 2005. This episode introduces viewers to the Ninth Doctor, portrayed by Christopher Eccleston, and his new companion, Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper.

In this episode, Rose, a shop assistant, encounters the Doctor while being attacked by living mannequins controlled by the Nestene Consciousness, an alien entity seeking to invade Earth. The Doctor and Rose collaborate to thwart this invasion, marking the beginning of their partnership. Check out our full review here.

In this episode, the Ninth Doctor, portrayed by Christopher Eccleston, takes his companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) five billion years into the future to witness Earth’s destruction as the Sun expands into a red giant. They arrive on Platform One, a space station hosting a viewing event attended by various alien dignitaries, including Lady Cassandra. Check out our full review for more detail.

In this episode, the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) travel to Victorian Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869. They discover that corpses are being reanimated by the Gelth, a gaseous alien species seeking to use human bodies as hosts after losing their physical forms in the Time War. With the assistance of Charles Dickens (Simon Callow) and a clairvoyant servant named Gwyneth (Eve Myles), the Doctor attempts to help the Gelth cross over into the human world. However, it is revealed that the Gelth intend to dominate humanity by inhabiting a multitude of corpses. You can read lots more here.

The year was 2005, and the city of London was on high alert. An alien spacecraft had just crashed through Big Ben and into the River Thames, leaving the population excited and fearful of first contact with a potential new species. Little did they know, an ancient alien crime family known as the Slitheen had set a nefarious trap for the people of Earth. Check out our full review for more details.

“World War Three” picks up right where “Aliens of London” left off, with the Slitheen disguised in 10 Downing Street and the Ninth Doctor, Rose, and Harriet Jones trying to stop them. This episode ramps up the tension as the Slitheen’s plan to trigger a war between Earth and the rest of the galaxy unfolds.

Continuing my “catchup” of all things Doctor Who, let’s talk about the reintroduction of the Daleks to the Who Universe. “Dalek” (episode 1.6) is a landmark episode in the revived Doctor Who series and is a very different story to the comedy (and flatulence) we saw in the Aliens of London with the Slitheen. It marks the first proper appearance of the Doctor’s most iconic enemy since the show’s return, and it does so with chilling intensity. This episode delves into the deep-seated trauma the Doctor carries from the Time War, forcing him to confront the very creature he thought he had destroyed forever.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

“Are you my mummy?” That single, chilling question, whispered in the echoing darkness, has become synonymous with one of Doctor Who’s most terrifying and, surprisingly, most emotionally resonant episodes: “The Empty Child.” Originally aired in 2005 as part of the revived series’ first season, this two-parter (concluding with “The Doctor Dances”) remains a benchmark for effective horror within the show’s family-friendly framework, expertly blending genuine scares with deeply human moments. It’s a story that burrows under your skin, not just with its macabre imagery, but with its exploration of fear, loss, and the enduring power of hope.

“Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!” This iconic line from “The Doctor Dances” (episode 1.10) perfectly encapsulates the heart of this brilliant episode. Now that I’ve gotten “back on the wagon” with regards to posting, I realize that I’ve left a few too many gaps in my efforts to capture all of the shenanigans of Doctor Who, so let’s see what I can do to rectify that!

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

Season 1 brought to us lots of thrills, danger and excitement, however, the biggest win was having Doctor Who back on our screens again after a long hiatus!

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

A Christmas two-part’er for the final episodes of the 10th Doctors incarnation sees The Master & The Timelords return!!!

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

The new episode of Doctor Who has The Doctor and Amy 1300 years in the future.  The Earth has been destroyed by a Solar Flare and all of humanity has taken to the stars in giant city shaped space ships looking for new homes.  Again – this is a filler episode as there are no huge “earth shattering” revelations or twists thrown at us, but it is a necessary episode to give the actors a chance to truly inhabit their characters and to allow us to get to know them also.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

The Tardis materializes 10 years in Amy and Rory’s future and The Doctor and team are in the small Welsh village of Cwmtaff. Here a team is conducting the most ambitious drilling project in history and have managed to break through the crust 21 km’s below the Earth! But … while they have been drilling downwards – something else has been drilling up and some mysterious disappearances have started to plague the small town.

This is the 2nd two-parter of the Matt Smith era of the new Doctor and just like the Angels episode it delivers! This set of episodes is all about the Silurians

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

While I know that it would have been very difficult for Moffat to exceed the thrills and spills of last week’s episode, this week’s just did not provide the same level of satisfaction. We ended with The Doctor trapped in the Pandorica, River Song and the Tardis getting blown to smithereens and Amy Pond lying in Rory’s arms after getting shot. The tension as you can well imagine was rather extreme and we were on track for one of the most intense season finales ever!

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

After the amazing, outstanding and superlative previous episode of Doctor Who – The Doctors Wife – it would be very difficult for anything that followed to measure up. Thankfully, The Rebel Flesh does not try to recreate the wheel or give us any life shattering moments (well, there are a couple of life altering moments …), but simply gives us a good, solid Doctor Who storyline that helps to advance the underlying story along.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

The second story featuring a new Doctor is usually where we see what we’re going to get from the character but Peter Capaldi came in so strongly with his abrasive and strange portrayal that there’s not much work left to do, and The Doctor’s sinister side seems to have peaked in this episode. Rather ‘Into the Dalek’ is a chance to get back to more rugged storytelling and pure action after a ponderous and arty season opener. 

Telling Clara to ‘take a punt’, The Doctor lands the TARDIS in a forest in medieval Nottingham where she hopes she can meet Robin Hood, despite The Doctor telling her that he is a complete myth. Upon arrival, Robin Hood appears and challenges The Doctor to a swordfight, which he engages with a spoon! As they meet the rest of the Merry Men, The Doctor grows suspicious that they are synthetic beings not historical entities. At an archery contest in which Robin splits the Sherriff of Nottingham’s arrow, The Doctor finally discovers the Knights guarding the Sherriff are disguised robots.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

In this episode, Clara and student Courtney Woods send the world a video message from The Moon in 2049, giving them 45 minutes to choose between humankind and an innocent life. Back at Coal Hill School in the present day, Courtney is acting out following The Doctor’s rejection, and he agrees to make her the first woman on the moon to prove she’s ‘special’. The TARDIS lands on a Moon shuttle full of nuclear bombs in 2049. The Doctor, Clara and Courtney meet Captain Lundvik and two ‘third-rate astronauts’, sent on a mission to destroy The Moon as high tides engulf the earth.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

In Last Christmas a couple of questions are answered, some old friends are seen again but like all good Dr. Who episodes, we never get the whole picture.  One question I (and I’m sure Parents everywhere) had was how would they include Santa Claus without ruining Santa Claus for a generation of kiddies?  I’m happy to say that the inclusion of Santa Claus (played by the aptly named Nick Frost) was exceptional.  The elves … really funny & extremely witty … were awesome and it was so nice to Clara and the Doctor back again.

The world has been covered with forest overnight. In London, Clara and Danny are babysitting a Coal Hill ‘Gifted and Talented’ student sleepover at The Zoological Museum. One of the students, Maebh, gets separated from the group and finds her way to the TARDIS parked in a leafy Trafalgar Square. The Doctor and Clara talk by phone and she and Danny take the children to the TARDIS, by which time Maebh has wandered off. On finding out Maebh has been medicated after her sister went missing, The Doctor deduces that the voices in her head were trees communicating with her.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

OK where to start with this one?  Episode 12 of the 8th Season – Death in Heaven has goodness a-plenty but at the same time, some jarring elements that just didn’t fit.  Overall however this was a fitting if somewhat depressing end to the season.  While the future of Clara is somewhat up in the air, Peter Capaldi’s Doctor has definitely cemented him into the annals of Who lore as one of the good ones.

Loved it, loved it, loved it!  Many girlish squeals of joy also! 🙂  Now that we’ve got that out of the way, lets get down to it shall we?  There was just so much to enjoy and love in this episode

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

We don’t often see what happens after the Doctor leaves, and what he leaves behind when he goes. A few stories have given us glimpses that it isn’t always the happy ending at the end of the stories, but only a few.  This episode definitely falls into that group  however and lets us see – perhaps somewhat painfully – how much the Doctor really needs the “Mayflies” in his life.  Without the Amy’s, Donna’s & Clara’s he loses his objectivity and becomes a bit too arbitrary without any consideration for humanity.  Ashildr too has this same failing &, in fact, becomes somewhat of a thrill seeker herself as the bandit Nightmare.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

In Heaven Sent the Doctor is trapped in a place he cannot escape, wracked with anger and guilt, with only himself for company, and hunted by a creature he cannot outrun, fight or reason with.  Constantly searching for answers he seems to always end up in the same place and his death (over and over and over) is painful to watch and experience.  Sure, he’s “talking” to Clara, but he’s not, is he? He’s talking to himself and the heart-breaking self-awareness of that takes us somewhere we’ve never actually been: Inside the mind of the Doctor.

Bang & Kaboom … a major shift in direction here and while it’s one we all saw coming, it’s still somewhat troubling in this excellent episode written by Sarah Dollard.  Clara played the Doctor a little too well, made a decision that was true to her character, and died as a result of that decision. This is both good — in the “if you have to die, die saving someone else” kind of way — and bad — in the “don’t stare at the details too much” kind of way — but on balance… it’s a pretty decent way for the Story of the Impossible Girl to end.

Doctor Who can and needs to offer itself to every possible sort of drama, from scary to enchanting and funny and also every little thing in between. So there’s absolutely no reason it should not do the same with the spy genre. In fact, it’s a fine selection for a New Year special. “Spyfall,” as you might anticipate from an episode that’s so gleefully pulling from 007 as well as his kin, is a globetrotting journey that barely ever stalls enough time to capture its breath.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.

This is just a placeholder to help you visualize how the content is displayed in the tabs. Feel free to edit this with your actual content.