"The Angels Take Manhattan" Reviewed by @zeiton_7

Ive been dreading this episode, ever since it was announced that this was to be Rory and Amy's last episode. I have had this feeling of impending doom and, as Saturday got nearer and nearer, it grew to an almost intolerable level. Not for the same reasons as, seemingly, most of my Twitter Timeline this week. You see I have a slight issue with certain areas of Doctor Who fandom. Its this... or comments like this. "If Rory and Amy die I don't know how I will live" or "my heart is breaking I don't know who to carry on" The frankly inevitable fan outpouring of hyper, over the top, "grief" annoys me. It annoys me a lot! Don't get me wrong, any companion or in this case companions that leave the program are going to trigger emotion. Its how the program works! We, as fans, attach ourselves strongly to those that are fortunate to travel with The Doctor. We share their excitement, their sadness, they are our passport into the world of The Doctor. Add to this the possibility that they may die and you have a cataclysmic event in Doctor Who. Companions being killed in the program is very very rare and when it does happen it is truly truly shocking. I have always made it clear that I have never really been a fan of Amy or Rory. For me they just annoyed me a lot of the time and the whole married couple travelling in the Tardis never really held much sway. Yes they had their moments but, if I'm honest, I was ready for a change. Perhaps I am not the ideal "target audience" for Pond love, I don't know, but there you have it. I also realise that other people did like them and would be truly saddened to see them go, may even shed a tear. NONE of this do I take issue with. Its the over the top comments that get me! You could put that down to age or to being new to the show but whatever it is I do believe a sense of perspective needs to be grasped.

Next year Doctor Who celebrates 50 years of existence. 50 years of books, tv episodes, stage shows, audio drama and merchandise. 50 years! Its a massive achievement and one that no other sci fi show has managed to reach. Why has it got to this milestone? One word. Change! Doctor Who is the only show that can completely change both its lead actor and supporting cast without causing the show any damage at all. In fact I would argue it strengthens it. With every new relationship, every new regeneration a new direction is taken. To truly appreciate how magnificent this show is, it is something that has to be understood. Add to that the fact that no actor wants to be type cast and must move on to new projects. If they feel they have taken the character as far as they can possibly want to then they leave. So by all means, feel sad if a favourite character leaves but its not the end of the story and its certainly not the end of you. These sort of over the top comments show a level of immaturity and well just silliness. There! rant over but it needed to be said! And no @Badwolfgirl5 and @Skriblerlenz I didn't cry but I'm knocking those that did!

Any way to the episode! The thought of Moffat writing a mid season finale involving The Weeping Angels is something that excites me. They are his baby and he writes for them very well. As our story opens we are stepping back into Gangster Land Manhattan and a clandestine meeting with a Boss and a detective. As his investigation unfolds we are haunted by the Angels. They are everywhere. I still get a chill when the camera pans away only to pan back and the statue has gone. Brilliant! As the detective uncovers his older self, dieing in bed, we wonder whether this is to be the Ponds fate. This is something that Moffat did incredibly well. We know they are leaving he had already hinted that "This time not everyone gets out alive". But he doesn't give too much away too quickly. As the plot unfolds and we learn more of the Angels plot we slowly get to see what The Doctor is up against. No sneaky Sonic waving is going to sort this one out!

As the all to familiar figure of River Song glides into view, played as always brilliantly by Alex Kingston we finally see the danger of skipping to the end of novels. It can mean your death. So with The Doctor, Amy and River back in time to save Rory some inconsistencies develop. Apparently if you read something in your future it becomes a fixed point! That's a new one! Knowing how transient Moffats fixed points are I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is reversed at some point. The biggest gripe I have is The Doctor using regeneration energy to fix Rivers broken wrist. Since when? At no point has The Doctor ever been able to use regeneration energy unless he is regenerating. This is lazy writing and  not even questioned. Again something which we as fans are just supposed to except. If The Doctor could do this why hasn't he done it to heal wounds before?

This aside though "Angels Take Manhattan" is a well written and well paced episode. Moffat does love to play with our emotions doesn't he. Surely feeding the fan girls is dangerous! He kills Rory three times in one episode (twice zapped back in time and once diving off a building) He also adopts a very Russell T Davis ploy of lulling us into a false sense of security. Just as we think Amy and Rory have escaped a surviving Angel zaps Rory back in time. The resulting "goodbye scene" with The Doctor, Amy and River was emotional. She finally chose Rory over The Doctor and spend the rest of her life with him back in time. Matt Smith's emotional final moments with her were brilliantly played and truly shows how good an actor he is. So with The Doctor unable to return to New York and a gravestone showing both Amy and Rory as dead they have truly gone for good. Their tenure with The Doctor completed as it began with Amelia Pond waiting for her "raggedy Doctor". An appropriate and fitting end to companions that have truly earned the title. How this parting will effect The Doctor we don't know but we will have to wait till Christmas Day to find out.

So to conclude, a really good episode to end The Ponds time with The Doctor and to move into the mid series break. The addition of some new Weeping Angels was truly chilling. In particular the smiling Angel. There was enough emotional trauma featured to keep my Twitter timeline buzzing till Doctor Who returns. Well done Moffat!

A review of "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" by @zeiton_7

When the title for Episode 2 was announced I didn't like it. At all. I was worried that it was going to a shocking episode that would just amount to an excuse to put CGI dinosaurs into a Doctor Who story. However, like all Doctor Who fans, I was willing to admit if I was wrong and say so very clearly when I came to write this review. As the time to sit down and watch "Dinosaurs" crept nearer and nearer my feelings of unease mounted. Not helped by the clips and dubious first scene "spoiler" either I might add. Why must every female (with the exception of Donna) want to get into The Doctors pants. Its getting boring!

"Asylum" last week may have set the bar impossibly high, was my thought. Historically, almost every Doctor Who season has at least one real shocking episode in it (I really didn't enjoy "The God Complex" last year and the less said about "Fear Her" the better) So it was with much trepidation that I sat down to watch "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" praying that I'd be proved wrong, indeed, hoping that I would be writing a different review.

Now is the time for all of you who haven't seen the episode to stop reading as I will now give my honest review of what I have just viewed.

Welcome to Zeiton 7- My love affair with Doctor Who by @zeiton_7

Hello and welcome to Zeiton 7, my new blog site. I thought I would use this opportunity to share with you all how I fell in love with "the mad man in a box". To do that we have to go back, way back, to my childhood and a typical saturday tea time....

The familiar strains of the "Grandstand" theme tune can be heard echoing through our house. This to me means only one thing. Doctor Who is nearly on! Every week I would dream of this time, this magical time when I would learn how The Doctor would escape the cliff hanger posed from the proceeding week. Whether it was a nasty scrape with the cybermen or at the wrong end of a gun pointed by some other villain he always seemed to manage to escape.

My Dad had been a Doctor Who fan since he was a child and had passed on his addiction to me. My first recollection was of staring transfixed at the screen as the Marshmen rose from the steamy swamps to stalk the land (Full Circle and The Fourth Doctor) The mix of fright and excitement is something I still experience today as do most fans! Together we would watch as The Doctor devised plan after plan to achieve his objective and then debate and discuss long after the titles had left the screen.

This was the "way of things" through the 80's right up until the final scenes of 'Survival' and The Seventh Doctor. I grew up with The Doctor and filled my time when I couldn't watch new episodes catching up with his previous incarnations through the excellent Target books. It seems amazing to me now with new Who episodes so readily available via BBC Iplayer and DVD/ Bluray releases that, back then, if you missed the broadcast on Saturday.. well you missed it! The only way I could familiarise myself with the previous Doctor's was by reading and listening to audio versions of the stories. My love for Genesis of the Daleks started by playing over and over the audio version of the story on tape.

If I wasn't watching, reading or listening to Doctor Who I was pretending to be the great man with my friends. We would relive our favourite stories or create our own for hours during a summer holiday, those were fun times!

My shock at the cancellation of my beloved program was profound and its effect on me was devastating!  I just couldn't understand why someone wouldn't enjoy such a totally groundbreaking and captivating program. To be honest I still struggle with that one! Unlike many other people, I really doubted whether it would ever return and as the months turned into years my fears seem to be confirmed. The announcement of a Doctor Who movie in the early 90's filled me with excitement again! I watched all the trailers and couldn't wait to see the now oh so familiar title sequences (yes even then I loved them!) to invade my television again.

Now, to be fair, I  have never felt that Doctor Who: The Movie or whatever the official title is was all that bad! McGann is brilliant and has gone on to give us some excellent performances through his work with Big Finish. Yes, there were problems (The Doctor is NOT half human) and Grace kind of annoyed me a little. I think it suffered from not really knowing what audience it was trying to reach (the die hard Who fan or a new unfamiliar one) Consequently it didn't really reach either so the promised new series never er.. materialised. Once more into the wilderness my friends!

However, then came Russell T Davies and the almighty Eccleston! I had long been aware that Russell is a massive Who fan. So the revelation that he was to bring the series back and that Eccleston was to play The Doctor was just the best news I had ever heard. My only other experience of a new Who story had been seeing Colin Baker play The Doctor onstage during The Ultimate Adventure! The now oh so familiar teaser campaign featuring Eccleston asking if I "wanted to come with him" still sends shivers down my back. The answer? 




Always and without reservation yes. I now know I have an incurable addiction to Doctor Who. It will never be quenched. Though I complain sometimes about things I don't like (don't we all) I will always tune in and watch and find something that makes me very very happy.

Doctor Who, right now, is more popular than its ever been and I am so unbelievably proud that it is moving into its 50th Year celebration with an amazing Matt Smith at the helm. Long may it continue!

Raise your glass to The Doctor, who has captured the hearts and minds of all of us!

The Doctor in shadow- A review of Asylum of the Daleks by @zeiton_7

"It's all still waiting for you. The Fields Of Trenzilor, the Fall Of The Eleventh, and the question. The first question! The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain site. The question you've been running from all your life. Doctor who? Doctor who? Doc-tor WHO?"

 Thus ends The Wedding of River Song and Season 6 of Doctor Who. As our beloved programs starts on its 8 month rest before returning for Season 7 (didn't that just feel like an eternity, even to those who weathered the "Wilderness Years"?)So many questions! So much we had to debate and discuss in the long 8 months which were to follow. The Doctor had admitted to Dorium he had "got too big, too noisy" and that it was "time to step back into the shadows" Indeed, a large number of dedicated fans had voiced that a return to more subtle story telling may be a good idea. My view is that the big season finishes, with the universe saved from disaster, were becoming an all to often occurrence. So what was this new shadowy Doctor going to be like? What of the Ponds? Strains were starting to show in their relationship during Closing Time, with Amy's modelling career taking off and Rory following like a dutiful puppy dog.

As usual with Moffat, the build up to last Saturday's Season 7 first episode was a multi media affair. Moffat is a master at ramping up the excitement and, with Twitter, the media and the BBC website at his disposal he certainly proved this to be the case. We have had leaks, unofficial and official, photos, artwork and those all important Pre Series start trailers. That's even before we got to Pond Life which dovetailed perfectly into Asylum of the Daleks. The trouble with hype is, the more it's utilised, the harder it is for a writer to deliver a story that satisfies and lives up to expectation. Moffat is writing his first ever Dalek story and its the season opener! So, did it live up to expectation? Well....


  

 Oh yes, Moffat delivered a masterful story which featured suspense, real chills and a Doctor that is, in my view the darkest we have ever seen him.

My review will focus on character development but will also feature elements of the plot. So if you haven't seen Asylum of the Daleks please stop reading now!