Neil Gaiman – Well Eye Never

Doctor Who Review – Series 7 – Part 2

Welcome back to the second part of my review for Series 7 of Doctor Who. As explained in my previous post, I’ve split it in two to reflect how the series was divided up, because each part is very distinctive.

This part of the series properly introduces Jenna-Louise Coleman (who would later drop the “Louise” from the anniversary special onwards) as new companion Clara Oswald, following her surprise appearance in Asylum Of The Daleks. I like her combination of cheeky humour, intelligence and bravery, and she has great chemistry with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, so she’s another of my favourite companions. The big story arc looks at why the Doctor has met different versions of her already, while a related subplot is about the threat of the Great Intelligence. These episodes also take us towards the 50th anniversary of the show, as they were broadcast in that milestone year (2013), so they include occasional references to the Classic era for those familiar with it.

So once again, here are my reviews of the episodes and bonus features, and there are plenty of things to watch and listen to on my Youtube playlist for this part of the series. I hope you enjoy!

Doctor Who Review – Series 7 – Part 1

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!

Doctor Who Review – Series 6

Recently I began revisiting Matt Smith’s reign on Doctor Who, by taking a deep dive into Series 5 as part of my ongoing posts about the modern era of the show.

So now it’s time to move on to Series 6. With the previous series, new showrunner Steven Moffat had given the programme a big overhaul, and very successfully too. So this time around things are more settled. The 11th Doctor is again joined by the gorgeous Karen Gillan playing the feisty Amy Pond, along with Arthur Darvill in the role of her newly wedded husband Rory Williams. They make such an enjoyable trio with great chemistry between them, because they became such good friends off-camera when they started working on Series 5 together. You can see how much fun they have together in the Confidential documentaries as well.

We also see plenty more of Alex Kingston as River Song, and we finally discover who she really is. Her identity is revealed as a mid-season cliffhanger, as originally the series was split into two halves, with a 12-week gap between them. Such a break had never happened in the modern era before, so it was a bit frustrating at the time, especially given the big reveal. But at least the series can be watched all in one go now. Other mysteries from the previous series, about The Silence and the exploding Tardis, also continue to develop here, along with new story arcs about the Doctor’s death and Amy’s pregnancy.

So there’s plenty to get through in this post, in terms of the episodes and the various extra features as per usual, and once again I’ve compiled a playlist for the series with lots of clips and bonus material. I hope you enjoy!

September 2023 Favourites

Hey there! Following my very busy birthday month – and thank you again to everyone who sent good wishes for my 40th – September has unsurprisingly and deliberately been much quieter and more relaxed.

I did see an amazing theatre show and had a lovely afternoon tea though, which I’ll be talking about here, but otherwise my outings were either for health appointments or general walks. And at home I’ve been watching a few things on TV and working as usual.

So there isn’t a huge amount to cover in this month’s post and video, but I hope you enjoy what I do have to offer!

June 2019 Favourites

We’ve reached the halfway point in the year, and summer is finally blessing us with decent weather. And I’ve had a very busy month!

Firstly, there have been some disability related developments, most of them positive. In particular, I’ve spoken at a conference, been a guest on a podcast, and I was filmed for another documentary. So my visual impairment led to a few great opportunities in quick succession, I’m happy to say.

On the downside, I’ve finally received the call-up letter to switch from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payments (PIP). This basically means I have to fill out a huge form about how my disability affects me, and then have a face-to-face assessment with a health professional, so the government can decide if I’m entitled to benefit payments. It sounds relatively simple when worded like that, but most disabled people will tell you it’s anything but. So that’s going to be on my mind a lot over the next couple of months at least, and I’m not looking forward to the process. But I’ll let you know how it goes at a later date. I’m not going to bore you with a rant about it in this post!

Thankfully, apart from that, I’ve been able to enjoy the month in many other ways. I went on a lovely weekend break with my girlfriend, I’ve been out in London for more exhibitions and walks, my girlfriend and I enjoyed a new film at the cinema, and I’ve enjoyed new TV shows and music releases at home. So there’s plenty to get through. As always, I’m not sponsored by anyone mentioned here, I’m just sharing these things because I enjoyed them. And I hope you enjoy this month’s post and video!

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