New Who: The Story Thus Far – Series 7 (Part 1)

John Hussey continues his series analysing the revival, this time with Series 7.

• Catch up on the 1st article looking at Series 1 (Episodes 1-6)
• Catch up on the 2nd article looking at Series 1 (Episodes 7-13)
• Catch up on the 3rd article looking at Series 2 (Specials, Episodes 1-4)
• Catch up on the 4th article looking at Series 2 (Episodes 5-13)
• Catch up on the 5th article looking at Series 3 (Xmas, Episodes 1-7)
• Catch up on the 6th article looking at Series 3 (Episodes 8-13)
• Catch up on the 7th article looking at Series 4 (Specials, Episodes 1-5)
• Catch up on the 8th article looking at Series 4 (Episodes 6-13)
• Catch up on the 9th article looking at the 2008 – 2009 Specials
• Catch up on the 10th article looking at Series 5 (Episodes 1-6)
• Catch up on the 11th article looking at Series 5 (Episodes 7-13)
• Catch up on the 12th article looking at Series 6 (Specials, Episodes 1-7)
• Catch up on the 13th article looking at Series 6 (Episodes 1-7)
• Catch up on the 14th article looking at Series 6 (Episodes 8-13)

‘The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe’

It didn’t take long for the Eleventh Doctor to get into trouble after the revelation that he would be returning to the shadows at the end of Series Six. ‘The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe Prequel’ showcased the Eleventh Doctor stuck with the dilemma of protecting the Earth at the cost of destroying the spaceship he was aboard.

The events continued within the Christmas special and saw the Eleventh Doctor’s explosive escape from the spaceship (one of my personal favourite Christmas openings) which saw him crash down on Earth below. He then bumped into Marge Arwell (Claire Skinner) who aided him in finding his TARDIS with amusing affects. To show his appreciation of her aide the Time Lord offered to help Marge in the future if she required his assistance. The sad story for her family began during World War II where her husband Reg Arwell (Alexander Armstrong) was apparently shot down in battle. Marge attempted to keep this tragedy from her children Lily (Holly Earl) and Cyril (Maurice Cole) until after the festive season.

The Eleventh Doctor attempted to cheer them up by becoming a wacky caretaker filling their uncles’ mansion with a huge variety of bizarre entertainment, including a special present that couldn’t be opened until Christmas morning. This all lead to a mad adventure that took this innocent family onto an alien forest where the trees intended to use them for their schemes. It was interesting to see that the Wooden King and Queen were in fact on the good side and humanity was once again pinned as the bad guys. The people of Androzani Major (a nice little out of the blue reference to ‘The Caves of Androzani’) wanted to turn the forest into fuel via the usage of acid rain and the forest wished to save themselves from death. Marge was ultimately turned into a mother-ship to carry the forests souls into space.

This resulted in the emotional journey through the time-vortex where Marge had to face the thought of her husband’s death in order to fly her family home. There was a brief moment of sadness due to the thought of Lily and Cyril having to face the truth but as it turned out Reg had once again followed Marge home after the spaceship turned into a beacon to light his way home. ‘The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe’ was a nice little story about family and loss which ended beautifully with the reunion of the Eleventh Doctor and the Ponds (Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill).

‘Pond Life’

‘Pond Life’ served as a fun little prequel to the events of the approaching first half of Series Seven which told the story of random adventures Amy and Rory had in their normal everyday life. This included in them hearing the Eleventh Doctor’s random stories through voice-mail, the Time Lord arriving in their bedroom at the wrong point in time and an Ood becoming their servant. Upon the Eleventh Doctor finally reaching them we received the sad implication that Amy and Rory’s marriage might be in jeopardy.

‘Asylum of the Daleks’

The ‘Asylum of the Daleks Prequel’ saw the Eleventh Doctor being contacted by a Headless Monk within his dreams which had him go to Skaro in order to fall into a trap, leading into the events of Series Seven’s opener.

The first half of Series Seven kicked off with a massive bang through the return of the Daleks within ‘Asylum of the Daleks’. The Eleventh Doctor continued to travel in the shadows and was now going across the universe deleting himself from all known records, becoming a mere shadow of his former self. Amy and Rory on the other-hand were on the verge of divorcing each other for unknown reasons. The trio were brought back together and were asked by the Dalek Parliament to help them with a little problem: destroying the Dalek Asylum.

The Asylum contained Daleks from across history that had lost their sanity and couldn’t be controlled anymore. It was certainly an interesting idea that I found sharpened their existence within New Who and expanded their mythology. It was also nice to see for the first time in New Who that the Daleks were a fully fledged empire again and no longer on the verge of extinction, completing the Paradigm’s victory from ‘Victory of the Daleks’.

Inside the Asylum the trio faced their individual challenges. Amy and Rory came close to death by the insane Dalek inmates whilst dealing with their marital problems. It was an emotional revelation to find out that Amy gave up Rory so to allow him a better life as she couldn’t give him children anymore due to the events of ‘A Good Man Goes to War’.

The Eleventh Doctor on the other-hand attempted to save the mysterious Oswin Oswald (Jenna Coleman) who had become trapped within the Asylum. She had helped them out heavily but her mystery unfolded into a horrific conclusion after it was discovered she had already become a Dalek. The shock almost killed her but in the end her strong will remained and she aided the Time Lord one last time.

The Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory escaped the Asylum after the shields were lowered and the Parliament had it destroyed with missiles. The Time Lord then discovered to his delight that Oswin had erased him from the Daleks records and they no longer knew who he was, driving him further into the shadows of existence.

‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’

‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ served as a fun romp of an adventure as the Eleventh Doctor, along with new friends Queen Nefertiti (Riann Steele) and John Riddle (Rupert Graves), journeyed onboard a spaceship filled with Dinosaurs. The Dinosaurs served as a nice little spectacle for the story and added in a darker plotline for the villain of the piece.

Amy and Rory continued their storyline of being temporary companions who were picked up every now and again by the Eleventh Doctor which added a new interesting design to the mix. This time however Rory’s dad Brian Williams (Mark Williams) was accidentally brought along for the ride. Brian’s character was a nice little addition to the story but at such a late stage in the Pond’s adventures it did seem odd for a close family member to be added into the mix, especially since Moffat had strayed far from the concepts of Russell T Davies’ era. Nevertheless my previous statement stands and I find his character enjoyable to watch and it was a nice little change to the line-up. I guess it’s a shame that we didn’t get more of him.

What started off as a fun adventure turned very dark in the second half upon the introduction of pirate Solomon (David Bradley). His character was just vile, without remorse and only had care for profit by whatever means. Solomon even went as far as committing mass murder upon the Silurians aboard in order to gain access of their precious cargo. The death of Tricie (which to this day still makes me cry) and the attempted kidnapping of Nefertiti pushed the

Eleventh Doctor to his absolute limit (another example of the Doctor releasing his darker nature) which resulted in him causing Solomon’s death.

‘A Town Called Mercy’

Without a doubt ‘A Town Called Mercy’ is my favourite episode from the first half of Series Seven. Its ambition within location was just stunning to watch. It made the story that bit more outstanding. The idea behind the Gunslinger was an interesting concept and created a lot of dilemmas which came back to reflect the Doctor’s own life. Kahler-Jex (Adrian Scarborough) was revealed to be responsible for inhuman experiments that resulted in the death of many of his own and the ones that survived being transformed into cybernetic killers. Those that survived the victory of the war were also killed due to no longer being required. It all made a brutal back-story for the two characters which made the Gunslingers’ motives for killing Jex all the more reasonable but at the same time it left the question of whether Jex truly deserved death.

The Eleventh Doctor once again descended into a darker nature which nearly pushed him into shooting Jex point-blank, a clear sign that his descent back into the shadows without much contact by companions had made him lose sight of what was right. The companion’s role, through Amy’s interaction, served to show that their purpose is to stop the Doctor from going too far and reminding him of what humanity stands for. This all reflected back upon the Time Lord’s conscious through the tale of Jex’s ascent into the afterlife after first facing those who he had wronged within life. This gave a dark vision on the amount of people the Doctor had wronged or allowed to die, which would point heavily to the dark days of the Time War, and what sort of journey the Time Lord will have to face one day when he had to confront the actions of his life.

‘The Power of Three’

‘The Power of Three’ served as a gentle penultimate story for the first half of Series Seven. It was a reflection on Amy and Rory and how their lives had been changed by the Eleventh Doctor. Their conflict between real life and the Doctor’s life was an interesting concept and played out well within this story. It also gave a detailed description on how the Time Lord views the world around him. Human lives are somewhat dull and still and this affected him greatly when he first had to remain on Earth watching over the mysterious Cubes. His lifestyle is vast and continuous, never stopping nor ending. It was nicely shown later though how much he cared for his companions when he asked to stay with them for a second time because he’d missed being with them.

Brian Williams returned for a last appearance and this time somewhat didn’t do much in this mixed bagged storyline. The key moments for his character was his confrontation with the Eleventh Doctor over what becomes of his companions, to which gave a nasty foreshadowing of the Ponds fate in the following episode. The other key moment was him advising his son and daughter-in-law to do what they want to do (i.e. travel with the Eleventh Doctor) but this would became something of sadness as it meant he had sent them off to their grim fate.

There was a nice little return from U.N.I.T. with the introduction of Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), the daughter of the late Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney). Although they weren’t used much (which was a massive shame as I was looking forward to a good old fashioned U.N.I.T. adventure), their appearance was sweet and a nice little nod to the past.

The other issue with this particular story was down to the ‘all over the place script’. The little girl and the strange Cube twins served no additional purpose to the plot and the Cubes themselves weren’t a major threat and their strange abilities seemed odd. The Skakri (Steven Berkoff) were very much underused which was another true shame. The final straw was the rushed ending which reversed any threat the Cubes inflicted with the resolution itself being far too convenient.

‘The Angels Take Manhattan’

Amy and Rory came to an emotional ending in the mid-season finale ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’. The return of the Weeping Angels was a great idea, especially since these sadistic creatures caused Amy so much torture in ‘The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone’. This time it was a sad swan-song which brought a dark curtain call that brought tears all around (well it made me cry at the very least).

The Weeping Angels’ insidious schemes for time-displacement returned with a somewhat sinister twist of them harvesting their victims within a creepy hotel they built for the purpose of a battery house. Rory was to be the next victim of this trap but him and Amy had other ideas. They decided to cheat fate by committing suicide, nearby defeating the Angels plans. This near happy resolution left us falsely secure into thinking everything was now fine but at the last second Rory was zapped by a surviving Weeping Angel. Devastated by this loss Amy too decided to give up the Eleventh Doctor to be with the man she loved the most.

This conclusion was both soul-destroying and satisfying. For once in New Who the companions didn’t end up completely fine and didn’t return home as always promised by the Doctor. This turn of events left the Time Lord crushed and lost. His beloved friends had been harshly taken from him and he had no one to turn to. It made the Time Lord realise that he couldn’t always turn back the clock and this time ‘time’ was literally against him through foreshadowing.

River Song’s (Alex Kingston) return was another great addition to the piece with her now released from the Stormcage due to the Eleventh Doctor deleting his records from the universe. It was nice to see her witness her parent’s demise and to actually give her mum encouragement, against the Eleventh Doctor’s wishes, to take a chance at being with Rory. Her appearance also gave an interesting insight into the Doctor’s views over not liking endings.

‘The Snowmen’

The mid-point in Series Seven took a nasty turn for the worst for the Eleventh Doctor when it was revealed in ‘The Great Detective’ that he given up on the idea of helping people and gone into seclusion.

‘The Snowmen’ saw a shift in the story towards a new central story-arc known as ‘the impossible girl arc’ which first began, unbeknown at the time, in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’. We were introduced to supposed new companion Clara Oswin Oswald (Jenna Coleman) who was at night a barmaid and in the day a governess. Her character was feisty, loving and above all inquisitive and encouraging. It was her job throughout the festive adventure to bring the Eleventh Doctor out of his long period of isolation and to bring him back into the light.

The whole idea behind the Eleventh Doctor going into isolation was interesting to say the least. It reflected back to the Tenth Doctor’s (David Tennant) depression towards the end of his era only this time instead of just travelling alone the Time Lord literally threw in the towel for good and skulked away above Victorian London. His usual attire of tweed jacket and bowtie was discarded and replaced with a Victorian style dressing for his new era. This, along with the new TARDIS interior, marked the Eleventh Doctor’s change in attitude and became somewhat more serious now he wasn’t with the Ponds.

‘The Snowmen’ marked the return of Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), Jenny Flint (Catrin Stewart) and Commander Strax (Dan Starkey), now known as the ‘Paternoster Gang’, who investigated the streets of Victorian London. The in-joke of their little adventures was that they inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in creating his legendary characters Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Their return was pleasant and felt right. They added in a new dynamic for the Doctor to interact with and allowed his exile to have a bit more depth with the Paternoster Gang serving as his watchers looking out for him in his troubled time. Within ‘The Great Detective’ they tried desperately to get the Eleventh Doctor back on his feet but were turned down by his depressive attitude.

This is where Clara’s intervention made it the more sweeter as it meant an unknown girl swooped in and did what the Doctor’s trusted friends couldn’t. Her inquisitive mind brought out the good in the Time Lord once more and made his inquisitive brain spark up and go back on patrol. By the end of the story the Eleventh Doctor had returned to the light and was once again ready to travel the stars and even going as far as offering Clara the key to the TARDIS, offering her a passage on his magnificent space-craft.

‘The Snowmen’ also brought about the return of the Great Intelligence (voiced by Ian McKellen) who was first introduced in ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ and then last seen in ‘The Web of Fear’. The Christmas Special served to tell the creature’s origins as it attempted to gain a physical form through its human servant Dr Simeon (Richard E. Grant). Dr Simeon served as a chilling human enemy but was later revealed to be no more than a puppet due to the Great Intelligence’s influence since he was a child. The Great Intelligence attempted to take over the Earth with its Snowmen army (an earlier design perhaps of the Yeti it would use in later encounters with the Doctor). The Great Intelligence however was supposedly defeated but victory came at a price for the Eleventh Doctor.

Clara was killed but not entirely it would seem. Her dying words of ‘run you clever boy, and remember me’ made the Eleventh Doctor remember his encounter with Oswin Oswald who shared the same appearance, characteristics and even name. But the question was how? How could two different versions of Clara exist in different parts of time and space? With his inquisitive mind returned, the Eleventh Doctor left his life of isolation and the Paternoster Gang in order to go off on his next big quest: to find out who Clara really was.

My verdict:

• ‘The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe’ – 9/10
• ‘Pond Life’ – 10/10
• ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ – 10/10
• ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ – 10/10
• ‘A Town Called Mercy’ – 10/10
• ‘The Power of Three’ – 7/10
• ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ – 10/10
• ‘The Snowmen’ – 10/10