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Doctor Who Series 5 Volume 4
There
aren’t many TV series that inspire such an army of fanatics . Doctor Who
is one of those series. It has an army of loyal followers that will go
over it in minute detail, debating who is their favourite of the Doctors
and lamenting the loss of earlier episodes when BBC decided to wipe the
tapes way back when. Then there are the people that see Doctor Who as
the height of nerd-dom, more geeky than a Joss Whedon obsessed Starcraft
fanatic. People who will refuse to give it a chance, based solely on the
reputation upon which its fans pride themselves. I came into the cult of
Doctor Who as an outsider, and while not foaming at the mouth at the
sight of the good Doctor, I still found a lot to enjoy.
Series
Five, volume 4 contains the last 3 episodes of series five, so of course
we get our massive finale which ups all the stakes and puts our lead
characters in all sorts of mortal peril, but before that we also get two
rather interesting character pieces. The first one is about Vincent Van
Gogh, The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) visit The
Netherlands investigating a picture of his which seems to have an
unknown beast in the background. However once they get there they find
that the universally respected artist is considered a horrible painter
in his time, a drunk, and one who can’t afford the vast quantities he
consumes. Frustrated by his lack of respect and his own crushing self
confidence issues, Van Gogh reluctantly joins with the Doctor to combat
the mysterious beast found in one of his paintings. It is a very
interesting episode that uses time travel well, and treats Van Gogh in a
way that does seem believable at the time. It also has a satisfying
emotional climax, which really shows off the Doctors human side, and his
growing attachment to them.
The
next episode centres on the Doctor lodging with Craig Owens (Gavin and
Stacey’s James Corden), as there is another room in Owens house which
people never come out from. This is more of a humorous episode, as the
Doctor tries to pass off as human and join Owens in regular activities
such as sitting around on the couch and playing football (something The
Doctor picks up in no time). Once again though, it also has a sweet
natured ending as The Doctor manages to bring Owens and his long time
love interest together.
The
two part finale is a much bigger event based episode. This one brings
back all of the popular Doctor Who enemies, such as the Daleks and the
Cybermen. It also brings back Amy’s boyfriend Rory, and mysterious
companion to the Doctor, River Song. There is a lot going on in these
two episodes, plenty of action, drama and a few laughs of course. It
also uses it’s time travel aspects very inventively as a part of the
solution. Without giving away too much, it is a worthy finale and wraps
most things up, but still leaves a few threads open for the next series.
Once
again the audio and video score highly, playing very smoothly and
cinematically. Unfortunately the extras are just as weak as the last
instalment; another Monster Files is all that is on offer. It runs
around ten minutes and is a pure puff piece. It will not be watched more
than once.
By the
end of Doctor Who series five, Matt Smith has fully grown into the role
and made it his own. Series 5 of Doctor Who is an enjoyable ride,
especially for fans of science fiction. Showrunner Steven Moffat seems
to have done the impossible, keeping the quality of a long running show
up after the much loved Russel T Davies passed the torch. The last
volume especially shows off the variety that Doctor Who brings in its
episodes, which means there should be something here for everyone to
enjoy. |
