It’s time to move on to the next series in my Doctor Who reviews for the modern era, which means I’m now up to Series 7. As with the previous two series, it’s overseen by Steven Moffat (who did an incredible job considering his workload at the time), it stars Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor (who is at the top of his game), the music is provided by Murray Gold (who blessed us with 2 albums of his beautiful score), and it’s a lot of fun as usual, with a great variety of stories.
However, this is a strange series, because it’s really 2 separate shorter series that were originally spread out over a couple of years. Series 6 had also been split into 2 parts when first broadcast, but over a much shorter period of just over 9 months, and when you watch it all in one go it feels like one continuous series. But for Series 7 the two parts are very distinct, because major changes are made in Part 2.
It’s for that reason that I’m splitting my review into 2 posts over this Bank Holiday weekend. This first part is therefore about the final adventures of companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams, played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, before they get a very emotional send-off. They’ve been wonderful companions, so it’s a shame to see them go, but having been around for 2½ series it’s a good time for them to depart.
So here are my reviews of all the episodes and the Blu-ray extras for the first part of the series, plus you can see lots of clips, interviews, music tracks and much more on my related Youtube playlist. I hope you enjoy!
Contents
Overview
The Series
For Steven Moffat, getting this series made was a miracle, as he had to juggle it with organising the 50th anniversary special and writing Series 3 of the equally brilliant Sherlock at the same time. He would later describe it as a “pretty miserable” period of his life due to the workload, which convinced him to stay on for a few more series as he didn’t want to end his tenure as showrunner on that note.
Despite all the difficulties behind the scenes though, it still worked out very nicely in the end, and in May 2012 he was even honoured with a Special Award at the BAFTAs in recognition of his work on Doctor Who and Sherlock, as well as other shows in his extensive career.
So this first part of the series begins with an hour-long Christmas special (which doesn’t feature Amy and Rory until the very end), followed by 5 regular episodes of around 45 minutes each. 3 of the episodes are written by Steven, while two are by future showrunner Chris Chibnall, and the other one is by Toby Whithouse.
While the series itself is split into two parts, it’s particularly unusual that none of the stories themselves are. Instead, every episode is a standalone ‘blockbuster’ adventure, marking the first time a whole series of Doctor Who has been delivered in this way. There are occasions where there was clearly potential for stories to be two-parters, but overall we do get a great variety of stories and settings. Some of the episodes also have short prequels that were shared online originally, and there are additional mini-episodes too.
The title sequence, meanwhile, changes after the Christmas special. For episodes 1-5, while the basic animation is the same as the previous couple of series, the font style for the credits is different, the colouring of the time vortex changes, and the Doctor Who logo is given a unique texture that’s relevant to each story. It’s a nice way to give each episode a unique feel, but it’s not a pattern they repeated going forward.
The beautiful music for the series was composed by Murray Gold of course, and he released 2 albums – one for the main series with 76 tracks, and another specifically for the Christmas specials with 32 tracks, making an impressive 108 pieces in total lasting 3½ hours. So I’ll mention the relevant tracks that I particularly like as we go along.
Blu-ray Steelbook
As usual I own the Blu-ray steelbook for Series 7, and the cover is nice and colourful, more so than the previous series, showing several of the most prominent characters. They’re still using the wrong logo though, from the year the steelbook was released (2020) rather than the years the show aired (2011-13). It’s not a deal-breaker, but it just looks odd when you know it’s incorrect.
As with previous steelbooks, the episodes and extras are listed on a flimsy flyer inside the case, while in the older Blu-ray edition there was a booklet giving a brief description of each episode. The old booklet also used the correct logo, and had a lovely collage of Tardis hexagons displaying images from the series.
The episodes are spread across 5 discs, with Part 1 of the series on the first 2 discs, and Part 2 on the rest. There isn’t any Doctor Who Confidential from this series onwards, sadly, so there’s no need to have a separate disc for the cut-down editions any more. Instead, there are very short behind the scenes features along with other extras, which are far too brief but better than nothing.
The animated menu shows the interior of the Tardis tomb from the end of the series, with greenery sprouting all over it and the Doctor’s swirling timeline towering in the centre, while the music is from the final cliffhanger scene of the series. But for those who can’t see, the discs also have audio navigation and audio description available, which is fantastic for accessibility.
Episodes
2011 Christmas Special: The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe
- Writer – Steven Moffat
- First Broadcast – 25 December 2011
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
The prequel for this special, lasting 1½ minutes, shows the Doctor leaving a message for Amy in the Tardis, even though she’s not there, explaining how he could really use some help on a spaceship that’s about to explode. But he has to let go of the button he’s holding and the craft detonates.
The main episode then starts from that point. There’s a great shot of the enormous spaceship as it enters Earth’s orbit and threatens everyone down below. But then the explosion occurs, and the Doctor races through the ship, falling out at the end so that he tumbles towards Earth.
He crashes to the ground wearing an impact suit, which he’s put on so quickly during free fall that it’s back-to-front, and he’s discovered by Madge. She’s played by Claire Skinner, one of several great guest stars I recognise in this episode, as I know her for playing the mother in the sitcom Outnumbered. She helps the Doctor get back to his Tardis while the suit continues to repair him, and she never sees his face during their encounter, while his voice is muffled in the suit, so she doesn’t recognise him the next time they meet.
Three years later, in 1941, Madge’s husband Reg is killed while serving as a fighter pilot in World War II. He’s played by Alexander Armstrong, who was the voice of computer Mr Smith in the spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures (which had just finished a couple of months before this special, and in that role he had already made a guest appearance in Doctor Who in the Series 4 finale). I also like him as the host of quiz show Pointless, one of the best regular guest hosts they feature on Have I Got News For You, one half of the comedy double-act Armstrong & Miller and the new voice of Dangermouse in the 2015 revival, plus he’s a good singer.
As it’s Christmas, however, Madge is too afraid to tell her children Cyril (Maurice Cole) and Lily (Holly Earl) about their father’s death, as she doesn’t want to spoil the festive season for them. While I don’t recognise her, it’s interesting to note that Holly had previously played the young Kochanski in the Pete story on Red Dwarf, and later played Agnes in Series 3 of Humans, as they’re both shows I like too. Both child actors are great in this episode anyway.
To keep the children safe from the bombings, Madge takes them to a big old house, where the Doctor has taken over as the caretaker, and made a lot of cool upgrades. But the biggest present he’s left by the tree gets Cyril’s attention by glowing and making noises. And when the boy sneaks down at night to check it out, he finds himself passing through a portal into a snowy forest, hence the Narnia reference in the episode’s title. He picks what he thinks is a silver bauble from a tree, only for it to hatch like an egg, and he follows whatever was inside deep into the forest, leading him to a man and a woman made out of wood in a big lighthouse tower made from trees.
Once the Doctor realises what has happened, he and Lily also enter the forest to hunt for Cyril, and the Doctor learns that all is not well in the place he thought would be safe for them. It’s difficult for him to get into the tower and deal with the tree-based lifeforms though, given that his sonic screwdriver famously doesn’t work on wood. He also makes a reference to a member of the Forest of Cheem fancying him, which is a nice little callback to the second episode of Series 1, End Of The World.
Madge then discovers why everyone has disappeared, and she too enters the forest, where she’s caught by a mining team led by Droxil, played by the brilliant comedian Bill Bailey. It’s amusing to see him getting exasperated with his colleagues Ven-Garr (Paul Bazely) and Billis (Arabella Weir, who I’ve enjoyed in The Fast Show). They eventually abandon her in their harvesting machine though, and she clumsily uses the controls to drive it to the tower, to reunite with the Doctor and her kids.
It turns out there’s a plan to destroy the forest with acid rain so that its resources can be harvested for energy, and the trees are therefore looking for a way for their life force to be taken elsewhere. The wooden King and Queen who Cyril had encountered try crowning him with a special relay device to do this, but he’s too weak for it, as is the Doctor when he tries to take it.
But Madge is strong enough and flies the top room of the tower, with everyone in it, through the time vortex. To target home, however, she has to think of powerful memories, which inevitably makes her focus on Reg, during which the kids learn of his passing – or not, as being a Christmas episode there’s a typically sweet and happy ending.
Finally, with encouragement from Madge for him not to be alone, the Doctor visits Amy and Rory, having not seen them for 2 years, to prove that he’s not dead after all. They already knew this of course, as River had explained it to them in the finale of the last series, but they’re delighted to see him again, and invite him in for Christmas dinner.
So altogether it’s a lovely festive episode. And Murray Gold’s music works beautifully of course, as represented by the first 19 tracks on the Christmas specials soundtrack album. In amongst them I particularly like Geronimo (from the big opening when the Doctor is falling out of the spaceship), Ditched At Sea (for Reg’s heroic death in the war), Madge’s Theme (which is quite sweet), Armchair Waltz & I Know (lively tracks from when the Doctor is showing the kids what he’s done to the house), Interrogation (as it has a mixture of heroic, dramatic and sentimental moods), Flying Home For Christmas (from the triumphant set piece at the end), and Friendship (from the Doctor’s reunion with Amy and Rory).
Mini-Episode: Good As Gold
- Writers – The Children Of Ashdene School
- First Broadcast – 24 May 2012
- Links – Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This fun little 3-minute episode, shown during Blue Peter on the CBBC channel, was written by schoolchildren Rebecca, Emily and Libby from Wilmslow, who were the winners of the BBC’s Script To Screen competition. It’s included on the Blu-ray, but without the behind the scenes feature that accompanied it on TV, or the introductory clips where the Doctor and Amy laid out the rules.
When launching the competition, the Doctor explained that he and Amy were trapped in the empty Land of Fiction, so they needed someone to write a story to get them out. He also wanted it to be set around the Olympics, but preferably not the 2012 Games, because he had already been there in Series 2. Ultimately, however, that last requirement was overlooked when the winner was chosen.
In the mini-adventure, Amy asks the Doctor for another adventure, as it’s been a while since the last one. But he struggles to control the Tardis and they crash land, at which point a torchbearer for the 2012 Olympics (played by Elliot Barnes-Worrell) runs through the door, pursued by a Weeping Angel. The Doctor is able to get rid of it using his sonic screwdriver, and the athlete thanks him by giving him a gold medal, telling him he’s as “good as gold”. The man runs out to continue his journey with the Olympic flame, while the Doctor and Amy set off on their travels again, unaware that the Weeping Angel has reappeared by the door.
Two days after this episode was broadcast, Matt Smith got to carry the real Olympic Torch when it passed through Cardiff on its way to London, which was a great honour for him, and there’s a nice gallery of photos on the BBC website.
He also starred in a BBC film that year called Bert & Dickie, about rowers Bert Bushnell and Dickie Burnell at the 1948 Olympics, where he played Bert and Sam Hoare played Dickie, while Geoffrey Palmer played Dickie’s father Charles. They’ve all been in Doctor Who in one way or another – Geoffrey was in the Christmas special Voyage Of The Damned as well as some Classic era episodes, and Sam played a production assistant called Douglas Camfield in the 50th anniversary biographical drama An Adventure In Space And Time, which I’ll be rewatching and reviewing soon too. I never watched Bert & Dickie though, and I’m not particularly interested in doing so either, as it’s not my kind of thing. It’s just interesting to note it here.
Beyond that, Doctor Who didn’t play a major part in the 2012 Olympics, which was a pity. But in the Opening Ceremony, as part of the section entitled Thanks Tim, you could briefly hear the Tardis materialising during the heavy guitar solo in Bohemian Rhapsody in the live broadcast, and a visual of it flying was included at that moment on the Blu-ray. So I’m glad the show got referenced at least, if only fleetingly.
Webisodes: Pond Life
- Writer – Chris Chibnall
- First Broadcast – 27-31 August 2012
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This is a 6-minute compilation of 5 vignettes, each of which give a little insight into what Amy and Rory have been up to since the Doctor was reunited with them at the end of the Christmas special. It was originally released online in 5 parts at the end of August 2012, and then shown as an omnibus on the BBC Red Button service on 1 September. So while it’s included as a bonus feature on Disc 2 of the Blu-ray set, it should really be watched before Asylum Of The Daleks on Disc 1, particularly because of the cliffhanger at the end.
In the first scene, the Doctor leaves a message for Amy & Rory, with dramatic footage of what he’s been up to. Next, he bursts into their bedroom one night, saying he needs their help, only to realise he’s far too early. The third and fourth parts then show the Ponds discovering an Ood on their loo, and it becomes their butler while they wait for the Doctor to take it home. So they’re all quite amusing scenes.
Finally, the Doctor tries to visit them, but they’re not in, and he can sense that something’s wrong. We also see that an anxious Amy is on her own and wants the Doctor’s help. So after the funny scenes that preceded it, the last one in this compilation is an emotional teaser for what’s to come next.
1. Asylum Of The Daleks
- Writer – Steven Moffat
- First Broadcast – 1 September 2012
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
After being omitted from Series 6, apart from one making a cameo in the finale, the Daleks are back, and it’s the first time Steven Moffat has written a story for them.
The 2½-minute prequel sees a mysterious hooded messenger telling the Doctor that a woman on Skaro – the planet of the Daleks – needs his help. But when he then goes to see her in the main episode, she turns out to be a puppet of the Daleks, who was just there to lure the Doctor in. Amy and Rory are also captured behind the scenes at a photoshoot Amy is doing (with the song Feel The Love by Rudimental playing), and we learn that the Ponds are getting divorced, as hinted at in Pond Life.
The trio are taken to the Dalek Parliament, which is a massive space full of Daleks of a variety of designs from the show’s history, even including the controversial new ones from Series 5, and a replica owned by previous showrunner Russell T Davies (thus making it canon, to his delight). But rather than wanting to kill the Doctor, considering they refer to him as their predator, the Daleks actually want his help to save them.
There’s a planet that serves as an asylum for Daleks who have gone insane (well, a lot more than usual anyway), to the extent that even normal Daleks are scared of them. And to stop them escaping, there’s a forcefield around the planet. But a spaceship has crashed through it and damaged it, so the Daleks want the Doctor and his companions to go down there and turn it off, so they can blow the planet up for good.
Without much choice, they’re sent down to the planet’s surface, where Rory is separated from the others upon landing when he falls down a hole. So he has to very carefully explore corridors with seemingly dormant Daleks until he can find the Doctor and Amy again.
Elsewhere, the Doctor and Amy find a member of the crew from the crashed spaceship, but discover that he and his dead crew mates have been turned into Dalek puppets as well. The Doctor, Amy and Rory had been given special wristbands before their arrival to stop the nanogenes in the air converting them too, but Amy’s is stolen from her, so her mind starts to be rewritten. At one point she even hallucinates a group of Daleks as people having fun.
She and Rory are reunited though, and when the Doctor goes off to find one more member of the spaceship crew, Rory offers to give her his wristband, because the Daleks are trying to remove love from Amy, and he believes his love for her is stronger, because it was Amy who left him. This makes her upset, and she reveals that she’s unable to give him any more children as a result of the events at Demons Run in the last series, so she gave him up for his sake. This brings them back closer together and their relationship is saved. They were never going to be apart for long, but it’s a nice way to resolve it.
The Doctor, meanwhile, is trying to find a lady called Oswin Oswald, whose voice has been helping them to get through the asylum in one piece ever since they arrived on the planet. She was on the spaceship that crashed a year ago, and has been making the most of her time ever since while waiting to be rescued. She’s not much good at making soufflés, but she’s an ace at hacking into the Dalek systems, which not even the Doctor can do, she’s got a cheeky sense of humour, and she’s a fan of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet, from which we hear Habanera and The Toreador Song during the episode.
However, when the Doctor locates her, he’s sad to learn that she suffered an even worse fate than the rest of her crew. While they had been turned into puppets for the Daleks to control, the fact she was such a genius meant they did a full Dalek conversion on her. She had battled against it so much in her mind at the time that she had invented an alternate reality that she chose to believe instead. So it’s an awful realisation for her to be reminded of the truth, but after an emotional conversation she turns off the forcefield for the Doctor, and tells him to “Run, you clever boy, and remember”, so that he and his companions can teleport to safety before the planet is destroyed.
What the Doctor doesn’t yet know is that he will encounter someone similar to her again, because Oswin Oswald is played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, who plays companion Clara Oswald in the second part of the series. When the episode was first broadcast, this was a real surprise for the audience, as it had already been announced that Jenna would be playing the next companion later in the series, but her appearance as Oswin in this story had been kept secret. There had been preview screenings before it aired, but the fans and the media actually kept it quiet, which Jenna and Steven thanked them for. So that added a nice bit of intrigue to the series from the start.
One great final touch is that Oswin is able to wipe all memory of the Doctor from the Daleks’ minds. So when he teleports back to his Tardis and says goodbye to them, they question who he is. And when he says he’s the Doctor, they all start chanting “Doctor Who?” in unison, which the Doctor takes delight in as he says it to himself a few times in the Tardis afterwards! It’s always fun when they manage to work the title of the show into the script, and it happens a few times during this series. But this is one of the best times they’ve ever done it, as hearing all the Daleks say it is quite cool. Of course, it was also stated as the question that should never be answered during the finale of the previous series, and his name becomes relevant at the end of this series too.
As for Murray’s music, the first 8 tracks on the soundtrack album are from this episode. My favourite track is Oswin Oswald’s theme, which has deliberate similarities to Clara’s, but other highlights include the dramatic feel of Dalek Parliament, the rhythmic tune of Towards The Asylum, the sweet reunion of Amy And Rory Together, and the sad realisation for Oswin in The Terrible Truth.
2. Dinosaurs On A Spaceship
- Writer – Chris Chibnall
- First Broadcast – 8 September 2012
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
The big crisis for the Doctor to solve in this episode is presented to him by the Indian Space Agency in the year 2367. They are concerned about a spaceship that is on a crash course with Earth, and warn the Doctor that if he can’t stop it, they’ll blow it up with missiles, which naturally he isn’t happy about.
So he puts together a gang to help him, although not all of them are supposed to be part of it. By the time he gets to the space agency he’s already got Queen Nefertiti in tow (played by Riann Steele), as she had forced herself upon him after he had saved Egypt from giant alien locusts. He then goes to pick up John Riddell, a game hunter who’s a bit full of himself and cocky towards women, so it’s good to see the Queen putting him in his place. He’s played by Rupert Graves, who I also know as Detective Inspector Lestrade from Sherlock.
Finally, he collects Amy and Rory, but inadvertently picks up Rory’s dad Brian in the process. Brian is played by the marvellous Mark Williams, who I know from comedy sketch series The Fast Show, as well as his roles as Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films, Olaf Petersen in a few episodes of Red Dwarf, and guest appearances in Bottom and Still Open All Hours. He had also previously appeared as another character in the Doctor Who audio story The Eternal Summer, which I’ve not heard. So it’s really fun to see his experience in this episode given that it’s such a shock to him, and because he helps to save the day in the end. He also returns a bit later in the series as well.
As the title of the episode (a nod to the action film Snakes On A Plane) accurately states, there are dinosaurs on the spaceship, which our heroes have to avoid being killed by. The Doctor, Rory and Brian even get to ride on a triceratops at one point, which is a great scene. One dinosaur also gets quite friendly with Brian because of the grass residue on the golf balls in his pocket, which is amusing.
The gang discover that the spaceship is actually an ark belonging to the Silurians, but there are none on board. And the Doctor learns that this is because of Solomon, an evil greedy man who will trade anything he perceives to have value. The Silurians hadn’t agreed to do a deal for the dinosaurs, so he killed them all by ejecting them.
Solomon is played by David Bradley, who would later go on to portray actor William Hartnell in the 50th anniversary biographical film An Adventure In Space And Time about how he became the first Doctor. And then David actually played Hartnell’s Doctor in three later episodes of Doctor Who. He had also previously guest starred as a different character in The Sarah Jane Adventures, playing Shansheeth Blue in Death Of The Doctor. Beyond the Whoniverse he’s also another Harry Potter star, as he played Argus Filch in the movies, and I’ve seen him in the Ricky Gervais comedy drama After Life, playing Ray Johnson.
Solomon is assisted by two bad-tempered robots, who are very funny because they’re played by comedy duo David Mitchell & Robert Webb, famous for their Mitchell And Webb sketch show. I’m delighted to hear David in particular, as I really enjoy him on panel show Would I Lie To You?, comedy drama Ludwig (which I’m glad is returning for 2 more series), radio show The Unbelievable Truth (on which, coincidentally, he briefly mentioned his Doctor Who appearance during the first episode of the current series, if you listen from 14:48), and his recent appearance on Last One Laughing on Amazon, along with his guest appearances on other comedy shows.
Anyway, Solomon forces the Doctor to help him repair his injured leg, but he then takes Queen Nefertiti hostage in a tense stand-off, because she’s even more valuable to him than the dinosaurs. So he takes her back to his smaller ship, while the Doctor and his gang head to the control room to try and steer the ark away from the incoming missiles. Rory and his dad end up piloting the ship together, much to Brian’s excitement, while Amy and John try to keep the approaching dinosaurs away. The Doctor is then able to rescue Nefertiti, but leaves Solomon to his fate, as when his ship departs, the missiles target that instead of the ark.
Once it’s all over, Amy and Rory ask to be taken home. As much as they love travelling with the Doctor, they still need to live their married life and be social with their families and friends, and they make a similar request at the end of the next episode too. They just don’t want him to stay away for too long each time, with Amy expressing concern on the spaceship that he had been away for 10 months on this latest occasion. So the Doctor has to reassure her about that.
Brian has one final wish before they leave though, and ends up having a cup of tea while sitting in the doorway of the Tardis, as he looks down upon the Earth. It’s a beautiful moment, and I like the way the camera pans away from Brian around the back of the Tardis to reveal the view. After all, it is a stunning sight, which the Artemis II crew recently enjoyed in real life. It inspires Brian greatly, as he then goes travelling all over the world, sending postcards back to Amy and Rory, and the Doctor even takes him to Siluria, where the dinosaurs now live. So it’s lovely for Brian to get such a new lease of life as a result of being with the Doctor.
On the soundtrack album there are just 3 tracks for this episode, lasting 5 minutes in total, but they’re all good – Dinosaurs On A Spaceship/Pterodactyls, Brian and Take A Ride On Tricey. I would say Brian’s theme is my favourite among them. During the episode we also hear a bit of Fantasia in F Minor by Schubert, which the Doctor recognises that Solomon is listening to.
3. A Town Called Mercy
- Writer – Toby Whithouse
- First Broadcast – 15 September 2012
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
The prequel to this episode is called The Making Of The Gunslinger, which is confusing when you see it listed on the Blu-ray, as it sounds like a behind the scenes feature. But it’s actually a short promotional film by Kahler-Jex (Adrian Scarborough), lasting just under 2 minutes, explaining the creation of a cyborg called the Gunslinger (Andrew Brooke) as part of an experimental program. He’s a living person who has been duped into being augmented with machinery to become a living weapon that will never tire or malfunction. In the pre-titles of the main episode we then see him killing various people, before he announces that there is one more he’s after – the Doctor.
Meanwhile, the Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive at a Wild West town called Mercy, but it has electric street lamps far too early for its time and signs urging people to keep out. The locals also get very anxious when they hear the group is led by the Doctor, and force them to leave the town, where the Gunslinger appears. But marshal Isaac (Ben Browder) lets them back in.
It’s then they learn that the Doctor himself isn’t the target, but scientist Kahler-Jex, who is hiding from the Gunslinger in the town. His spaceship crashed nearby, and since then he’s devoted his time to being the local surgeon, as well as rigging up some rudimentary heating and lighting with electricity for the residents.
The Doctor goes to the ship to see if he can fix it, communicating with his horse along the way, who wants to be called Susan and respected for its life choices! But when he gets there, he learns the truth about Kahler-Jex’s work from the onboard computer, which makes him furious. The scientist created the experimental cyborgs to win a war, so the Gunslinger is looking to get revenge, and lays down a deadline for Kahler-Jex to be given to him.
So after an angry confrontation with Kahler-Jex, the Doctor takes him out of the town and points a gun at him, keen for him to face justice for his crimes. He’s shown mercy to his enemies before and tried to understand them, but some like the Master and the Daleks keep coming back, and this has pushed him to breaking point. It’s a very powerful scene, as it’s always tense to see the Doctor in such a dark state of mind, instead of being carefree and jovial, and Matt Smith pulls it off so well.
Amy gives the Doctor a stern reality check though, as his behaviour is illustrating why he should never travel on his own for too long, something the Doctor still has to be reminded of from time to time. The Gunslinger tries to shoot Kahler-Jex anyway, but Isaac pushes him aside and takes the hit instead, and with his dying words he passes on his marshal badge and duties to the Doctor.
Kahler-Jex is taken back into the town and kept in a cell, and the Gunslinger gives them a deadline of noon the next day to bring him out again. He hasn’t come into the town to get the scientist so far, in order to avoid injuring civilians, but now they’re under threat as well because they won’t help him. So the Doctor keeps watch overnight and talks to Kahler-Jex some more, but he also has to talk down a lynch mob who want to pass their own form of justice on the scientist.
The next day there’s a typical Western stand-off as the Doctor and the Gunslinger face off with each other in the blazing sunshine. Rather than handing the scientist over, however, the town work together to distract the cyborg so that Kahler-Jex can get away. But because the Gunslinger will always be hunting him down, Kahler-Jex blows himself up in his own ship, to do the honourable thing. This frees the cyborg of his burden, but he can’t go back to his home planet because he wouldn’t fit in there any more. The residents of Mercy adopt him though, at the Doctor’s suggestion, and he becomes a sentry guarding over the town as their new marshal. So it’s nice that the cyborg is a layered character with human traits, rather than just a killing machine, and ends up having a happy ending.
6 tracks on the soundtrack album relate to this episode, and naturally they reflect the Wild West theme of the episode as well as its emotional content. I would say my top 3 are Welcome To Mercy, Gunslingers and The Salvation Of Kahler Jex.
4. The Power Of Three
- Writer – Chris Chibnall
- First Broadcast – 22 September 2012
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
Amy and Rory have been settling more into their domestic life now that the Doctor isn’t showing up so often, to the point where they’re questioning whether to give up their hectic adventures with him. But now he’s having to spend quite a bit of time in their world for a change, because of a long, drawn-out mystery.
Millions of small black cubes have suddenly appeared all over the world. Nobody knows why, where they’re from, what they’re made of or whether there’s anything inside them. But people have taken them into their homes and offices, and are posting about them all over social media, with the Doctor expressing a particular dislike for Twitter (which Matt Smith doesn’t use). The cubes also make the headlines, while Brian Cox and Alan Sugar have fun cameos as they talk about them.
Not even UNIT can determine anything about them, despite performing every test they can. So when they detect the Doctor’s presence, they storm into Amy and Rory’s home to talk to him.
And this is where the episode is particularly significant, because it’s the first time we meet Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, head of scientific research at UNiT, played by the fabulous Jemma Redgrave. She’s such a great character, a strong leader and a good friend to the Doctor, and he quickly figures out that she’s the daughter of the Brigadier, so there’s a lovely moment between them when he brings it up. The Brigadier was played by Nicholas Courtney in the Classic era, then made his final appearance in Series 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, before Nicholas passed away in February 2011. So it’s lovely that his legacy is continued in this way, and he still gets referenced in Doctor Who occasionally to this day.
As for Kate, her character was actually first portrayed by Beverley Cressman in an independent direct-to-video spin-off called Downtime in 1995 and its later sequel Dæmos Rising from 2004. But for mainstream viewers of the official Doctor Who series like myself, this story is the first time we meet her. Jemma has returned as Kate in several episodes since then, and most recently had a central role in the spin-off The War Between The Land And The Sea, where the character was pushed to her absolute limits.
Anyway, the consensus here is that the cubes need to be kept under close observation, for however long it takes, because they must have landed for a reason. Months then pass, with the Doctor getting bored and trying to find ways to pass the time, Rory’s dad Brian keeping a video diary of the cube’s inactivity, Amy agreeing to be a bridesmaid, and Rory opting to work full-time as a nurse. The Doctor also takes Amy and Rory away on a special trip for their wedding anniversary, though in typical style they get into more trouble than they were expecting, and Amy accidentally ends up marrying Henry VIII!
Brian also takes a moment to ask the Doctor what happened to his previous companions, and he’s honest about it, sadly admitting that a small number of them died, but promising he won’t let that happen to Amy and Rory. The Doctor also talks to Amy about their desire to stop travelling with him, admitting that he misses them when they’re not around, and in previous episodes you can see the sadness in his face when they turn down offers to travel with him. He also says the reason he keeps coming back to them is because they’re the first people his new face saw. Plus of course we now know that they’re River Song’s parents. So he’s formed a special bond with them, which not only means that these are touching scenes to watch, but they’re also important given the events of the next episode.
Back to the cubes though, and they finally all activate at the same time around the world, all doing different things. One pricks Amy’s hand and takes her pulse, another opens up in front of Rory without showing him what’s inside, and one flies around and tries to shoot the Doctor. Then there are lots more in UNIT HQ, tucked away under the Tower Of London when the Doctor and Amy pay a visit, including one playing the Birdie Song by The Tweets on a loop. That’s one of a few songs played during the episode, as we also briefly hear Titanium by David Guetta and Don’t Falter by Mint Royale at the engagement party for Amy’s friend Laura, along with Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade at the hospital.
The cubes then all stop 47 minutes after they started, before eventually displaying a slow countdown, at the end of which anyone near a cube in the world suffers a cardiac arrest. Even one of the Doctor’s two hearts stops, but Amy gets it going again when they get to the hospital where Rory works. There’s been some strange behaviour going on there too, with a little girl holding one of the cubes and having a strange look in her eyes, while a couple of porters with deformed faces have kidnapped an old man and Brian, and then Rory has followed them through a wormhole in a lift.
The Doctor and Amy also find the portal, and pass through it to discover they’re on a spaceship. The Doctor then talks to a hologram of a member of the Shakri (Steven Berkoff), known in Gallifreyan legend as the pest controllers of the universe, and he wants to wipe out all of humanity. But the Doctor stops him of course, restarting everyone’s hearts and rescuing Rory and Brian, before they all escape back through the wormhole just as the ship blows up.
Back at home, Brian encourages Amy and Rory to go travelling with the Doctor again, given that it’s such an exciting once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and as long as he keeps them safe. But he turns down the Doctor’s offer to join them. And as Amy and Rory re-enter the Tardis, she notes that cubed means the power of three, referring to the trio they make with the Doctor, which is a nice way to wrap it up. This scene is also the last one that Karen and Arthur filmed for the series, even though the next episode is their final adventure, so they had a hug and a cry afterwards, bless them.
Fittingly, there are just 3 tracks for The Power Of Three on the album as well, lasting just under 4 minutes – Cubes, While We Waited and Brian’s Log. The middle one is my favourite, because it’s quite calm for the most part, but then has a crazy bit at the end when the Doctor is trying to keep himself busy.
5. The Angels Take Manhattan
- Writer – Steven Moffat
- First Broadcast – 29 September 2012
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
In 1938, private detective Sam Garner (Rob David) investigates a large property called Winter Quay in New York, having been sent by art collector Julius Grayle to find out why the statues there appear to be moving. Julius is played by Mike McShane, who I’ve seen in a more light-hearted role on the original British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which first made him a household name, and he’s very good here. Sam discovers an elderly version of himself, who warns him that he’s going to be sent back in time, and while Sam manages to avoid some of the Weeping Angels, it’s the Statue Of Liberty that gets him in the end.
In the present day, meanwhile, The Doctor, Amy and Rory are sunning it up in Central Park, and we hear a bit of Englishman In New York by Sting to set the scene. The Doctor is reading a book about a detective from the 1930s called Melody Malone, and tears out the last page to throw in a trash can, as he apparently does with every book, because he doesn’t like endings.
However, when Rory goes off to fetch some coffees, he hears some children giggling and gets rather wary about the statues around him. He then suddenly finds himself transported back to 1938, where he meets his daughter River Song (Alex Kingston). They’re captured by Julius, who traps River in the grasp of a Weeping Angel that’s too damaged to send her back in time, and sends Rory down to a cellar that’s full of little cherub statues, where he hears the giggling noise again.
Back in 2012, Rory and River get mentioned in the book that the Doctor is reading. So he tries to fly back to 1938, but the Tardis refuses to land there, sending him and Amy to a present day graveyard instead – where they fail to notice a gravestone with Rory’s name on it. Amy has continued to read the book during this time though, which said they wouldn’t be able to land, so the Doctor orders her to stop, as everything she reads creates a fixed point in time that must happen. But she’s read enough for them to know where River and Rory can be found.
To break through the temporal barrier, the Doctor travels all the way back to 221 BC to get a message inscribed on a Chinese vase that will be in the building River has been taken to. When she spots it, she’s then able to use her vortex manipulator to help the Tardis arrive.
As he talks to River about where she is in her timeline, the Doctor learns that she was pardoned and released from Stormcage prison for his murder from the end of the last series, as his removal from every database in the universe meant she couldn’t be imprisoned for killing someone who seemingly doesn’t exist. So she’s now a Professor of Archaeology, which she remains until we first see her in Series 4, as her timeline runs in a very different order to the Doctor’s.
The only way the Doctor can see for River to get out of the statue’s grasp is to break her wrist, and because of Amy reading in the book that he would be breaking something, he assumes he has to do it. But she refuses and breaks her wrist herself. The Doctor heals it with some of his regeneration energy, but she feels it’s irresponsible and slaps him for it.
As for Rory, he’s disappeared from the cellar, but this time the Doctor, Amy and River discover that he’s only been moved in space, not in time, because the cherub angels aren’t at full strength yet. So they catch up with him at the Winter Quay building, just as he discovers his future, elderly self, and the current Amy sits with him as he dies in front of her. Present day Rory is determined to run and escape that fate though, even if he has to keep avoiding the Weeping Angels for the rest of his life, and Amy is steadfastly by his side.
With their path blocked out of the building, however, they head up to the roof, and Rory prepares to jump off, in the knowledge that it will create a paradox, because if he dies that way, he can’t then discover himself as an old man in the room he just visited. Amy pleads with him to stop, because there’s still no guarantee he’ll survive the fall, but ultimately she understands and decides to jump off with him, much to the Doctor’s horror as he discovers them. It’s a really powerful and excellently acted scene that proves just how deep their love goes, and the shot of them falling in slow motion (which they filmed hanging upside down) is visually striking.
Fortunately it works and the paradox destroys the Winter Quay building, with the Doctor, River, Amy and Rory being returned to the modern day graveyard. So all seems well, until Rory spots his gravestone and a surviving Angel takes him again. There’s no way the Doctor can save him with the Tardis this time, as it would create another paradox on top of the one they just created. So Amy, desperate to be with Rory, takes her chances by letting the Angel take her as well, even though she has no idea if she’ll be transported to the same time and place. The Doctor is devastated, as he’ll never be able to see her again. but her daughter River encourages her that it will work, and Amy tells River to look after him, before saying her final goodbye to her “raggedy man”. So it’s another very moving scene.
As if the emotions haven’t been hit hard enough, however, there’s a final scene to heighten them further still. River turns down the Doctor’s offer to travel with him, as she doesn’t want to do it all the time, but she also tells him not to be alone. So she promises that when she writes the Melody Malone book that the Doctor was reading, she’ll ask Amy to put in a final note at the end. Of course, that will be on the last page that the Doctor tore off earlier, so he dashes back to Central Park and retrieves it from the bin. It’s a lovely message from Amy to let him know that she and Rory had a good life after they were taken. She also urges him not to be alone, and to give little Amelia Pond hope that she’ll have a great future, and we see the little girl we first met in Series 5 one more time.
It’s a beautiful end to an excellent and emotional episode. It’s very sad to see Amy and Rory leave the series, because they are such great characters, portrayed brilliantly by Karen and Arthur, who have proven themselves to be very capable of everything from silly humour to powerful drama. They’re the sort of people you’d love to hang out with, both in and out of character. But they do go out on a high, I’m very glad their daughter River was part of it, and it’s really sweet that they lived out a happy life together. You do feel very sorry for the Doctor though, as it’s yet another companion he can never see again, and in the next Christmas special we see how badly it’s affected him.
As for the music, there are 9 pieces on the soundtrack album, some of which are quite tense and atmospheric. Among them, my favourites include New York New York, My Husband’s Home and Almost The End. But naturally the most beautiful, powerful and significant pieces are the final two – Together Or Not At All (The Song Of Amy And Rory) from the jump scene, and Goodbye Pond from the ending – with Murray Gold knocking it out of the park as usual for their big farewell.
Webisodes: Pond Life Epilogue
To finish off the story of Amy and Rory, there are a few follow-ups worth noting, which aren’t in the Blu-ray set:
- P.S. (4:38) – This is a very moving mini-episode, written by Chris Chibnall, that was intended for inclusion on the DVD & Blu-ray sets, but it was never filmed in the end. So instead, it’s been shared in storyboard form on the BBC website and Youtube channel. It begins with footage from the final scene of The Power Of Three, when Amy and Rory say goodbye to his dad Brian before they travel away once more, never to be seen by him again. The storyboards are then set a week later, when a letter is delivered to Brian by a man called Anthony. Arthur Darvill narrates the letter as Rory, explaining his disappearance, telling his dad how much he loves him, and revealing that Anthony is their son through adoption, and thus Brian’s grandson. It’s really sweet, and it’s a shame it wasn’t filmed, but I’m glad it gives us some closure on that aspect of the story.
- Rory’s Story (2:24) – This fun little video was posted on Youtube during lockdown in 2020, and was written by Neil Gaiman, who also wrote The Doctor’s Wife in Series 6 and Nightmare In Silver later in Series 7. It’s a video diary by Rory, one of many he’s recording to dictate a book about his life to his son Anthony. It’s 1946, so he’s glad the war is over despite knowing how it would end anyway. He also remarks how good people were at being brave, optimistic and resilient, which is obviously a bit of encouragement to the audience dealing with the Covid situation at the time. He then gets ready to dictate his next chapter, only for Amy to call for his help off-screen.
- The Ballad Of Arthur Darvill – This is a very funny parody of Let It Go from Frozen, performed by Arthur on Radio 1 in 2014, where he tells people there’s more to his talents than just Doctor Who, including his role in the new West End musical Once. He’s got a good singing voice to be fair.
- Pondcast – In November 2025, it was announced that Karen and Arthur have reunited to record a new ‘Pondcast’, looking back at their time on the show as they rewatch all of their episodes, with guests including Steven Moffat. It’s not yet known when it will be released, as it’s been delayed slightly, but it should be fun to listen to, as they get on so well and have a great sense of humour.
Karen and Arthur both went on to have very successful careers after Doctor Who of course, and deservedly so. In particular, while Karen was making it big in Hollywood, Arthur starred in all 3 series of Broadchurch from 2013-2017, which was written by future Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall and starred his Doctor-to-be Jodie Whittaker. I’ve never watched that show though, so I can’t comment on it. Perhaps I ought to check it out when I get around to reviewing Jodie’s era as the Doctor, as it’ll be most relevant then, but we’ll see.
Blu-ray Extras
There are no audio commentaries for the first part of this series, but there are other extras on the Blu-ray, consisting of an hour of additional footage and behind the scenes material, plus an hour and a half of BBC America documentaries. Most items are on the first couple of discs with the episodes for Part 1, but a few relevant features are on later discs.
Additional Scenes
- Prequels (5:53) – As noted in the reviews above, there are prequels for a few episodes that were originally released online. They’re nice little scenes to add a bit of extra context and only last 1½ to 2½ minutes each.
- Mini-Episodes (9:18) – As discussed earlier, the Good As Gold and Pond Life mini-episodes are included on the Blu-ray set.
Backstage & Interviews
- Behind The Scenes (20:30) – In the absence of Doctor Who Confidential, which ended with Series 6, nearly every episode in Series 7 (except the 2011 special) gets a very short Behind The Scenes feature instead, running for just 3-5 minutes each. It’s a real shame they’re so brief considering what we had before, but they do have some nice footage, so they’re still worth looking at.
- The Last Days Of The Ponds (11:48) – A nice additional feature that follows Karen and Arthur as they film their final scenes, while also reflecting on when they first met, the bond they formed and the cool things they’ve done. There’s also input from Matt Smith, Steven Moffat and others.
- Comic Con (11:09) – This is a compilation of clips from a Doctor Who panel attended by actors Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill with executive producers Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner. They answer a lot of questions from the host and the audience, and it’s often quite amusing. There are a few backstage interviews and comments from the fans mixed in too. It’s a pity we don’t get the full panel though.
BBC America Documentaries
The Blu-ray set includes 2 documentaries made for BBC America in 2012, which run for nearly 45 minutes each (and another from 2013 that I’ll mention in Part 2). Sure, I would have preferred to have longer behind the scenes features for the individual episodes in the series instead, but still, these are entertaining, and it’s lovely to see people like David Tennant and John Barrowman again.
- Doctor Who In The U.S. (43:06) – As the name implies, this celebrates the show’s close connections with America. It looks at what it was like to film in the USA in Series 6 & 7, how they’ve replicated American locations elsewhere, the inclusion of American characters like Captain Jack Harkness and newsreader Trinity Wells, the numerous appearances of the Daleks in the States, and the Classic era story The Gunfighters featuring the 1st Doctor. And of course there’s plenty of respect for the American fans, who keenly watch filming taking place, enthusiastically welcome Matt and Karen during their Series 5 press trip to New York, and go mad for the cast at Comic Con. Along the way, there are specially filmed interviews with Steven Moffat, Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill, as well as David Tennant (10th Doctor), John Barrowman (Captain Jack), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith) and Peter Purves (Classic era companion Steven Taylor). And it’s all narrated by Lachel Carl, who plays Trinity Wells.
- The Science Of Doctor Who (43:38) – Not to be confused with the following year’s British documentary for the 50th anniversary, this programme explores whether certain aspects of Doctor Who are or could be scientifically possible, including the Tardis, invisibility, time travel, regeneration, aliens, Cybermen, Daleks, the sonic screwdriver, K9 and human cloning. The only direct contributor from Doctor Who itself is Steven Moffat, while for the most part we hear thoughtful insights from a variety of scientists, with Maggie Aderin-Pocock being the only one I’m familiar with. There are also comments from actors and comedians I’ve never heard of, apart from Dallas Campbell, who has presented The Gadget Show & Bang Goes The Theory on TV.
Conclusion
That’s all for the first part of Series 7, which I hope you found interesting. As I mentioned at the start, there are lots of clips on my associated playlist as well.
Come back for the second part tomorrow, where the Doctor meets Clara Oswald properly, and he comes under threat from the Great Intelligence, as we build towards the show’s 50th anniversary specials.
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