DOCTOR WHO: THE POWER OF THREE REVIEW

DOCTOR WHO SERIES 7: EPISODE 4 - THE POWER OF THREE

Air Date: Saturday 22 September **
Channel: BBC One (UK), BBC America (US)
Starring: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Mark Williams, Jemma Redgrave, Steven Berkoff

Reviewed by Helen Henderson

The Ponds have a big decision to make amidst a very unusual invasion.

From the pen of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship episode author Chris Chibnall, comes the underwhelming The Power of Three. A nod to the Russell T. Davies era that came before it, this episode was a tale focused on ‘normal’ life as opposed to the hectic knockabout way of things when travelling with the Doctor. With a distinct nod to the old James lyrics “If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor”, the Ponds are attempting to live their lives in normality while deciding whether the constant travelling is really for them anymore. It shines an interesting light on a concept not yet seen in Who - can companions live a double life of travelling with the doctor whilst carrying on their normal everyday happenings? With the ability for the Doctor to hypothetically return companions to the moment he picked them up it is surprising this intriguing idea hasn’t been explore before. It is lended extra relevance being widely known as the Ponds’ penultimate episode – and further lends to the ambiguity of their eventual fate - will their final scenes be fatal or a final decision to end their travels?

DOCTOR WHO: A TOWN CALLED MERCY - TV REVIEW

DOCTOR WHO SERIES 7: EPISODE 3 - A TOWN CALLED MERCY

Air Date: Saturday 15 September **

Channel: BBC One (UK), BBC America (US)

Starring: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Andrew Brooke, Adrian Scarborough, Ben Browder

Reviewed by Helen Henderson

The Doctor is faced with the ramifications of his own past in this tale of Wild West mayhem.

After last weeks’ tepid outing for the Doctor, A Town Called Mercy finally brought drama that packed a powerful punch back to our screens this Saturday. Written by Toby Whithouse, responsible for previous episodes including The God Complex, Vampires of Venice and School Reunion, this fantastic morality tale not only presented a compelling storyline but also boasted great performances from all involved and a tale where the line between good and evil are considerably blurred. It was a fresh spin on both the Sci-Fi and Western genres, and added further pathos and dimension to the series by showing that the consequences of the Doctor’s travels and interventions are not always beneficial to all.

The episode opened intriguingly with a man desperately (but fruitlessly) scrambling away from an unknown assailant who towered above him, instructing him to make peace with his Gods, name dropping The Doctor as curiously the ‘only one left’ and then sending the unfortunate man to his maker. It was a fittingly ‘Western’ opening to the episode, made further so by touches such as the shows title logo being displayed as made of wood, and a suitably accented opening narration.

PROMETHEUS: MOVIE REVIEW

PROMETHEUS

Release Date: 1st June (UK)

Director: Ridley Scott

Running Time: 124 Minutes

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba

Screening Reviewed: UK FDA Press Screening (BFI IMAX 3D)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

Our Exclusive Prometheus Video Review is now available on Youtube!

To broker the most common concern surrounding Prometheus, it is clear from the first few moments of the film that this is very consciously and deliberately a different entity from the Alien franchise with which it shares both its universe and director. Whereas Ridley Scott’s 1979 seminal sci-fi masterpiece opened with the isolation, silence and cold of space, Prometheus begins with stunning sweeping vistas and panoramas, the sterility of the stars now replaced with roaring waterfalls and aggressive natural majesty. This juxtaposition is in many ways perfectly symbolic of how very different the two films really are, for where Alien was a masterclass of subtlety, prolonged silence and measured cutting, Scott’s latest outing is a far more visceral, bombastic, and even noisy, affair.