In a season where nods back to "classic" Doctor Who have been more in vogue than at any point since the series came back, it's odd that the more unconventional stories of this season like Amy's Choice and this weeks Vincent and the Doctor have risen to the top of our 2010 Dynamic Ratings Table. Neither change-of-pace episodes or pseudo-historicals are new to Doctor Who, or nu-Who for that matter, and like any Doctor Who they rise and fall on the strength and execution of the story. In this regard Love & Monsters completely misfired while The Unquiet Dead worked wonderfully. And much like The Unquiet Dead, the subject matter has much to do with art and artists.

Vincent and the Doctor is basically a three-man play, and that specifically excludes the "monster." It's hardly an accident that the Krafayis is invisible, as the artist is really the subject in this episode. It's hardly conventional Doctor Who, a point driven further home during the last 12-15 minutes beginning when Vincent demonstrates how he sees the night sky (a gorgeous show-stopping morphing) straight through to the daytrip to the present day so that the Doctor could show Vincent that he really was appreciated (again just like The Unquiet Dead) when Vincent and the Doctor becomes more of a Richard Curtis film in tone and direction than Doctor Who.

But this is why we love this series. What other show could run episodes like The Time of Angels and Vincent and the Doctor in such close proximity. We loved it.

Images and caps for Vincent and the Doctor are now online.

The problem with Cold Blood lies not with the story but with ourselves.  When a story, inadvertently or otherwise, steps all over cherished remembrances of stories and monsters past, it wrong-foots itself into a hole which is hard to climb out of.  Last week in this space we lamented this occasion, at least for the THT Brain Trust, with regard to the Silurians.  Perhaps the worst part of all for those of us plagued with long-term memory, it that this has all happened before. Back in 1984 when JN-T was hip-deep in needless continuity with the past, Peter Davison's final season led of with Warriors of the Deep, one of the few stories in classic Who which often elicit visceral negative reactions amongst long-term fans. 

It's certainly unfair to visit the sins of Warriors of the Deep upon The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood.  For a start the latter is simply a much better story in concept and execution than it's distant cousin, but as we started with in this post, the memory simply does not cheat in this case.  This story was probably tasked with the charge of being "the one to evoke Classic Who," but for anyone familiar with The Silurians the societal breakdown in Cold Blood seemed all-too-familiar, and needless.  Matt Smith channeled his inner-Pertwee as best he could, but he seemed a little too-distant in this story.

And then there's Rory, who's happily did not turn out to be Adric in any sense of the word.  The little bit with the engagement ring in The Hungry Earth should have been a dead-giveaway (pardon the pun) about what was to come, and while it seemed rushed in terms of it's abruptness it also book-ended the crack-o-doom appearances quite nicely.  Thank you Arthur Darvill. Perhaps we'll be seeing you again when the Pandorica opens.

Images and caps for Cold Blood are now online.

A few weeks back when Victory of the Daleks was broadcast, many fans–particularly British fans, were upset, and rightfully so in the eyes here at THT Worldwide, at the redesign of the Daleks.  Previous new series updates to the basic Dalek design had made them beefier, but stayed largely true to the original series variations of the basic 1963 silhouette.  Now the Daleks were dayglow, bigger, and more plastic and many noted the change as change for change sake.  But longer-term readers of this space also know that the Daleks have never been in our wheelhouse. 

This week however the series nods decidedly to the Pertwee era with part one of a two-parter that touches on many a Pertwee story, including some of the THT Brain Trust faves (Doctor Who and) The Silurians, Inferno, The Sea Devils, with a nod even to Frontios thrown in for good measure. Once again there's been a re-design, adequately explained in story it has to be said, so now we have come to the position occupied by others just a few weeks ago.  And it grates.  We also are having a hard time getting past the Sleestak similarities in these nouveau Silurians (we confess this is shallow on our part).

We have the definite feeling that this story was much more about set-up than The Time of Angels was, but time will tell.  Always does.

Images and caps for The Hungry Earth are now online.