**Spoilers** Series 7, Episode 4 - "The Power of Three"

pixelburp

Oddly, this Saturdays episode featured very little in most of the promos I recall seeing before the season started: there were lots of clips of Daleks, Angels, dinosaurs & the Wild West, but nothing from this one. Probably means nothing but odd all the same

Apparently though, we will see

the return of UNIT!

Trailer anyway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWZswC-yA68

Daemos

This is the episode I've been looking forward to the most out of this half-season, specifically because there's so little information about it

Sleepy

Also appears to be laying the groundwork for the Ponds leaving too...

Doctor DooM

Sleepy wrote: »

Also appears to be laying the groundwork for the Ponds leaving too...

Well it'd want to be, their time in the sun isn't going to last much longer...

I dunno if that should be spoilered or not, but you never know some uber casual watcher might read it..

Das Kitty

I'm really looking forward to this one. But unfortunately I won't get to see it til tomorrow morning.

aaronjumper

Das Kitty wrote: »

I'm really looking forward to this one. But unfortunately I won't get to see it til tomorrow morning.

I know how you feel. I have it set to record but don't know when I will actually get to watch it.

Wing126

I've no clue what's going on in this episode. I need to watch it again after this original showing.

pixelburp

I think the episode was a glorified introduction to Dr. Who's new BigBad - the Shakri; I don't think that's the last we've seen of them.

Also: Lethbridge-Stewart II!

G.K.

Enjoyed it.

gufnork

Why was

the Tardis black?

Note: Spoilered for those that haven't watched yet.

gufnork

G.K. wrote: »

Enjoyed it.

Yep, was very good. Liked it a lot. Did you notice that

the Tardis was black?

It's bugging me now. It was, wasn't it?

pixelburp

No, the TARDIS wasn't black; if you mean at the end, it was just the way the shot was filmed (there's no need for spoiler tags, the title clearly forewarns of spoilers & the episode has just aired so all from the story is fair game)

ríomhaire

That was disappointing. I was loving this series but this one broke the good episode streak it had going. The acting seemed very poor for some reason, especially Karen. Don't know what was going on there. Bad directing? Rushed filming? The cast weren't on form at all.

As for the content of the episode itself, oh dear. Badly written speeches, the title and ending monologue being based on a bad pun, random things happening for no reason, an enemy who the Doctor just immediately knows everything about and who he defeats literally just by waving his wand around.

Seriously now though, I must comment on the villain's plan here. They send down billions of cubes that spend a year infiltrating every nook and cranny of people's lives (other than sensible people who'd make sure those things were nowhere near their ****ing house), download the internet, hack the Pentagon, take biometric readings from Amy, test people's reactions to shooting around random fire, laser guns, annoying sounds and other random things and the master plan it uses all this colossal amounts of data for is stop everyone's hearts?

Now, that's not a bad plan actually. Stopping everyone's hearts at once. If you can do it go for it. It just seems that this is a plan that would require about five minutes to come up with and doesn't really have anything to do with recording every possible piece of data possible about humanity before you do it. It really only needs two pieces of data: They have hearts. We can stop them. Also, if you have that much ****ing data on humanity you should be able to predict that the number of cubes you have is insufficient to kill all of them. What was it? Only a third taken out? Why would you start killing them, then drop more cubes as they were going to? Drop more cubes first you ****ing idiots.

Other completely pointless things: Why count down? Why not just suddenly kill everyone without warning. This is not effective extermination. What is the point of the girl robot? It serves zero purpose either for the evil plan or for the purposes of the plot. Why the evil nurse robots? They use them to kidnap a few people but why do they need to kidnap anyone when their plan involves downloading all possible data humanity has on itself. Just read that. The only thing kidnapping people does is increase the chances of getting noticed. Even if they just need to test the heart-stopping beam surely they only need one person for that? If it kills that person mission ****ing accomplished you don't need any more tests. If it doesn't kill them then just try again till you figure out what kills them. None of it makes any sense.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I haven't read or seen any spoilers about how the Pond's leave, but after that episode

I'd assume they die?

Plenty of opportunity in tonight's episode to have them make the decision themselves, or for the Doctor to make the decision. Nobody made it. Next week apparently their last episode......

ebbsy

It wasnt bad at all. Maybe less episodes is better.

Although they should have got somebody better to do UNIT, yer one could have done with a few electric shocks herself to wake herself out of that acting slumber.

gufnork

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I haven't read or seen any spoilers about how the Pond's leave, but after that episode

I'd assume they die?

I'd certainly like to see that happen. I've heard otherwise though.

I really hope this stuff gets used later on. It wasn't great. I mean they had brian cox :eek: but otherwise, it was a big suspense that built up to... nothing.

Maybe it gets used.
I hope.

Do you think the whole surfing the internet and gathering data thing was for their "tally" and the final decision a year later was to kill them off? Would that be it?

Ending was a total cop out though
Oh that's grand I'll wave the screwdriver and despite being dead for who knows how long they'll all recover and get up again with no lasting brain damage or whatever.

8mv

Don't know if anyone else watches with their kids, but I've noticed that even though Matt Smith is an excellent Doctor and the scripts and storylines are easily as good as three years ago if not better, my kids are not as interested at all now as they used to be. When DT was in the role, Saturday evenings were for DW and there was great excitement. These days the kids are easily distracted by other diversions or they are only waiting to turn over to The X-Factor (the shame!) I don't know if it's that my kids are older now or if it's that DW is gaining credibility at the cost of losing some of it's main demographic.
Tonight's episode was a case in point - one of the girls watched with me but lost interest half-way through. The episode was ok, but finished very poorly, I thought.

pixelburp

bluewolf wrote: »

I really hope this stuff gets used later on. It wasn't great. I mean they had brian cox :eek: but otherwise, it was a big suspense that built up to... nothing.

Maybe it gets used.
I hope.

Do you think the whole surfing the internet and gathering data thing was for their "tally" and the final decision a year later was to kill them off? Would that be it?

Ending was a total cop out though
Oh that's grand I'll wave the screwdriver and despite being dead for who knows how long they'll all recover and get up again with no lasting brain damage or whatever.

I'd say it's almost guaranteed; the whole finale felt like an introduction rather than a climax, and usually when bad-guys escape in the final act it means we'll see them again. Seemed like a set-up to a future arc - it's actually a long time in the show since there was a direct threat against humanity, of the "I hate humanity and will destroy the world" variety.

8mv wrote: »

Don't know if anyone else watches with their kids, but I've noticed that even though Matt Smith is an excellent Doctor and the scripts and storylines are easily as good as three years ago if not better, my kids are not as interested at all now as they used to be. [...]

Familiarity I guess; the show is in its 7th series of the new run afterall, so stands to reason that some of the freshness & excitement will waiver for some. Even I've found myself drifting into a soft of autopilot with the show, taking it for granted.

As for the tone of the series - this isn't meant as a dig at his tenure - but RTDs stories tended to be big, colourful & noisy; full of shouting, running and explosions - that's always going to play better with kids than the comparatively slower-paced, darker drama that Moffats crew is writing. I think someone once wrote that Moffat has retooled Who into more of a Grimms farirytale than the bombastic opera of RTD Who, I'd be inclined to agree.

yaines

That was incredibly disappointing. I was so looking forward to it as I thought the poster art was really intriguing and last weeks preview made it look excellent. I enjoyed the first half an hour but couldn't wait to find out what the story was with the cubes. And then... nothing. Seriously, they came alive for 5 mins, stopped a few people's hearts, the Doctor waves his screwdriver around and everyone's OK again?? WTF?! Never mind the biological impossibility of this (those people literally came back to life, not a bother on them, despite no oxygen going to their brains for however long they were "dead") but what was the whole point of the slow invasion? If they just wanted to kill a third of the population, why didn't they just start shooting straight away? Why leave it a year? It doesn't make any sense. And the little girl... What was the point of her? Honest to god... I know Moffat didn't write this one but how could he possibly have approved this? Please god let it be part of a bigger story arc or else I'm seriously going to lose faith in his abilities as the show runner.

However, I suppose it wasn't all bad - Brian was equally hilarious and endearing, the Doctor on the Wii made me laugh out load and watching them sitting in front of TV eating fish fingers and custard gave me a lovely feeling in my stomach. But seriously, s**t ending.

Manach

The side adventures (ie the 7 week hiatus during the party) actually seemed alot more interesting that the main plot. As for the brain dead activity - could the boxes are targeted politicians, as that behaviour is the norm for them.

FloatingVoter

River Song and Angels next week...plus bye bye to the ponderous Ponds. It may get better soon.

K-9

I thought it was quite a good episode, the funniest so far definitely, for what seemed a series filler barring the Ponds and the obvious build up to them leaving. The ending was disappointing though. Best scene was the look of disgust from Smith when uttering Twitter, anybody who watched the Alan Carr show last night will get it.

9wetfckx43j5rg

It seems for sure this is the set up of an arc in regards to the boxes and the new baddie race. There's no way they won't be mentioned again, it was all too easy. The whole data collection the boxes did is going to come back up, it has to!

Also surely the whole 7 minutes, 7 portals thing is just a reference to the fact that it's the seventh season?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

They could have made this one a 2 parter to flesh out the cube story and had the whole "will they won't they" of the Ponds quitting the Doctor been a bit more of a gut wrenching decision and actually have them make a decision, not have Rory's dad do it for them.

I really liked the 1st 3 episodes of this series, and I liked the stand alone feel of them because I kind of thought it was supposed to reflect the fact that Amy/Rory weren't with the Doctor as much as before. So they were "stand alone" adventures for them too. Which I thought was building up to them making the decision for themselves to stop. Now I don't know where it's all going.

I'm still enjoying it more than last years really long and confusing arc that ran through all the episodes.

off.the.walls

This was a really well written episode! Personally loved it some really really funny parts in it!!

Das Kitty

I enjoyed it but I found the plot fairly thin.

There seemed to be a lot more emphasis on comedy set ups and harking back to the past (which I assume was intentional, poor Adric) rather than what the purpose and end game of the cubes was. It felt a bit rushed at the end and I assume we'll see what the "second phase" would have been at some later stage.

There was plenty to enjoy for me personally though. People having actual conversations about their feelings, Brian, the Brig's daughter.

I think the Ponds' choice at the end was out of sync with where the episode was headed, I don't know why that is. They seemed to enjoy standing still, then all of a sudden they were off again. It just seemed like a clunky method of getting them back on the TARDIS for next week.

FloatingVoter

Jemma Redgrave (UNIT head) and Steven Berkoff (Emperor Palpatine :rolleyes:) are theatrical heavyweights so we should be seeing more of them - they wouldn't just be happy with cameos.

CramCycle

So the auto destruct on the ship, have to run off it immediately, anyone else notice they left the people on the ship but then they are all there? Did Rory save them, did I fall asleep near the end? if so, did the kidnapped people on the other ships die?

I enjoyed the first half of the episode but it just drifted into rubbish for the second half, also Amys line at the end, not sure if it was her tone of voice but it was hateful.

BuffyBot

Plot was thin on the ground, that is for sure. I did like three parts though: Brian's confronting the doctor about the fate of his previous assistants/companions, the introduction of Kate and The Doctor admitting his motivation to Amy for coming back to the Pond's: that she (and Rory to a respect) were his "first". - might explain 9/10's Rose obsession )

I still find it hard to believe he is disappearing companionless for 10 years at a time etc given his past tendencies to not be alone for long.

I think the age thing was mentioned by her saying she'd reckoned her and rory aged 10 years but not in the same time as earth + 10, just from all the time going around with the doctor, is that what you mean

ríomhaire

BuffyBot wrote: »

I still find it hard to believe he is disappearing companionless for 10 years at a time etc given his past tendencies to not be alone for long.

He has River.

cloud493

I liked it, till they showed who was actually responsible for the cubes. Plus, Brian was awesome, actually asking the doctor what happened to his former companions.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

BuffyBot wrote: »

I still find it hard to believe he is disappearing companionless for 10 years at a time etc given his past tendencies to not be alone for long.

The dinosaurs in space episode showed he had other people that he'd pop in on and have adventures with.

I don't understand the time away thing from the Pond's point of view. They had people saying to them that they keep disappearing for periods of time but in the first series with Amy in it the Doctor took her off for 13 episodes or whatever but was able to bring her back right at the same point he took her from. He even did it at the party in this one.
I know they'd probably still age while they're away but from the people in their real lives point of view there's no real reason for them to be aware that Amy and Rory keep vanishing.

phil1nj

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Steven Berkoff (Emperor Palpatine :rolleyes:) are theatrical heavyweights .

Steven Berkoff? Emperor Palpatine? When did that happen? He will forever be Victor Maitland from the first Beverly Hills Cop movie to me.

Seriously though, have to say I've been a wee bit disappointed with the episodes so far this season. This one was no exception. Just feel like there is something crucial missing from them. Next weeks episode looks promising but I'm not getting my hopes up.

pixelburp

Surprised by how many people hated the ending; granted the solution to the crisis was a bit glib, but it always struck as more of an introduction to a new best-enemy, very much a 'to be continued...' scenario, than a rushed ending to a problem.

Das Kitty

pixelburp wrote: »

Surprised by how many people hated the ending; granted the solution to the crisis was a bit glib, but it always struck as more of an introduction to a new best-enemy, very much a 'to be continued...' scenario, than a rushed ending to a problem.

I watched it a second time with this in mind and it was definitely better.

Have to say, I love when they talk about Gallifreyan stories. Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, Zagreus (which I've only read about but yeah, creepy as feck) and now the Shakri. It'd be cool if they brought out a book of Gallifreyan bedtime stories.

cloud493

I didn't think it was truly terrible, just that the lead up to it suggested a more interesting conclusion. River next week though

ríomhaire

pixelburp wrote: »

Surprised by how many people hated the ending; granted the solution to the crisis was a bit glib, but it always struck as more of an introduction to a new best-enemy, very much a 'to be continued...' scenario, than a rushed ending to a problem.

Yeah I'm really looking forward to seeing more of an enemy that takes five seconds to defeat.

pixelburp

ríomhaire wrote: »

Yeah I'm really looking forward to seeing more of an enemy that takes five seconds to defeat.

:rolleyes: well in fairness, that describes the resolution to many Dr. Who stories, hell it's practically its MO at this stage: a bit of running about for 40 minutes, the day is saved in 5. I just don't think the story should be hung out to dry given it was really only there to serve two purposes: first to throw in the foreshadowing of the Ponds' departure & second to introduce a new villain (though in the spirit of their plan to test the Human race, perhaps they were also testing the Doctor, seeing how resourceful he was in defending humanity).

Stark

Pretty poor episode. Reminded me of some of the lowpoints of the RTD era: clunky tension building (the countdown), gaping plotholes (defibrillate everyone 30 mins after they have a heart attack and they're right as rain?), the Eleventh Doctor chanelling the Tenth with "humans are brilliant".

ixoy

Enjoyed it for the most part but the cube plot was beyond ridiculous. Just throw a killer virus at them - it'd be much easier and a lot less convoluted! I also know I'd have thrown the cube away (and, if the cubes were so dangerous, why were so many scattered on the ground still a year on?! Even if they weren't dangerous seems mad that they'd be lying around).

I did like how they handled the upcoming Pond departure. I also really like Brian - think he's very well handled and my favourite parent in the show after Donna's father. Would like to see more of him.

Matt Smith - as good as ever!

And Kate Stewart - nice touch. It did ring a bell and yep, she was first introduced in the spin-off video/book "Downtime" which I read years ago, as well as "The Scales of Injustice". It may be the first time a character created from the spin off media is made canonical. Now all we need is Bernice Summerfield to show up!

Das Kitty

I was amused by the fact that there was an AED just sitting in the hospital hallway not being used when half the planet was in cardiac arrest.

Wing126

Rewatched it today. I honestly would have the episode more if it was just about the Pond's daily lives. The cube plot felt pretty rushed and made the rest of it feel rushed aswell. It was a mediocre episode at best, which is weird considering DOAS was pretty good imo.

cloud493

I really liked Brian. Its interesting to have someone who can see the folly of the doctor, not just the blue box that can take you anywhere you want. Thought he'd be fairly crap too, so pleasantly surprised.

BuffyBot

The dinosaurs in space episode showed he had other people that he'd pop in on and have adventures with.

I'm sure he does, but fleshed out dispoable cardboard cut outs don't really cut it

Art_Wolf

CramCycle wrote: »

anyone else notice they left the people on the ship but then they are all there? Did Rory save them, did I fall asleep near the end? if so, did the kidnapped people on the other ships die?

Nope, the Ponds did indeed leave them to die - wheeled off Brian, ignored the rest and ran back to play with the Doctor. Damn their cold blooded murdering hearts!

CramCycle

Art_Wolf wrote: »

Nope, the Ponds did indeed leave them to die - wheeled off Brian, ignored the rest and ran back to play with the Doctor. Damn their cold blooded murdering hearts!

Wouldn't put it past Amy to be honest, I presume I missed the bit where Rory was wheeling them out while The Doctor and Amy were talking to the Pinhead/Emperor Palpatine love child.

pixelburp

Actually, I think the best way to view the ep is that RTD snuck one of his old scripts into the pile when no-one was looking: a slightly circuitous global event, viewed from a domestic perspective? Random celebrity cameos? UNIT farting about like the Avengers? A slightly messy script that seemed made-up as it went along? Hell, even some of #11s lines were a bit ... Tennish.

Mr.Saturn

Has Moffat been RTD-ing the scripts this year? I mean, I only ask as both of Chibnall's episodes from this season, for whatever complaints are thrown at them, has shown more characterisation and relatability than just about his entire Torchwood run.

There was Owen and Tosh at the end of S2, but hey-ho, that's just because they were about to die.

(Torchwood S2 spoiler).

McLoughlin

One thing I noticed was this episode was set before A Town Called Mercy as in this episode Rory left his phone charger in Henry VIII room and it was mentioned in A Town Called Mercy.