Day of the Moon

It seems in the Moffat era of Doctor Who that every two prayer will have a great first part and a disappointing second part. This happened a lot twice in season 5 and it has happened here again. So much is left unexplained and the teasing of future episodes with the pregnancy stuff just left me feeling sour. It's clear as day that Moffat can write a compelling story but his need to tie everything into the main arc of the series as a showrunner really annoys me. All of the stuff involving Richard Nixon is great and the visual appeal is nice as well but the story is where the whole thing falls apart. Rory regresses in character and too much time is crammed into a 45 minute episode, making the whole thing feel so rushed. Despite me not really looking forward to watching the next episode (the next time trailer looked iffy), i'm hoping it will at least be self contained and won't try and bait me into watching more with teases and mysteries (almost as if the format of the show isn't enough of a reason to keep watching). The episode starts out needlessly complicated and ends in an insultingly simplistic way. I could pray all day that future episodes will make up for episodes like these and maybe i'll like this episode more looking back but i'm extremely doubtful of that happening. Well done Steven.

It's fair to say without too much contradiction, that the opening ninety minutes have lessened my full conviction (in the writer). There's a moment in this episode of Who, when the title may have been Pandorica II (or Robinson Whosoe). We found that Dwarf Star Alloy is great for assembling enclosures, stops those unwanted glances and exposures. Nano-recorders provide some kind of focus, they can replay all your ramblings after the Silence have left their locus (or you have stopped looking at them). I'm sure there's some method in this madness that will all be revealed, with the gaping open wounds of uncertainty well and truly closed and healed (probably not, they seldom are, the Ontological Paradox get out clause will be activated sooner or later). We move on.

There is something about the serial form that I both love and hate and it can be summed up in one word: cliffhanger. That final minute of the episode that puts the hero and associates in a deadly situation and then cuts, leaving you a week or so to gnaw your fingernails off while you wonder how they're going to get out of this one... sweet agony and Steven Moffat knows how to go about it and I bless him and curse him for it.

In this episode, we finish up the season's two part premiere very stylishly, with lots of verve, starting the show three months after the last one concluded. We also see a stylistic reference to the old series. The classic Doctor Who series had long stretches of Gothic horror, with vampires, mysterious Chinese magicians and such like, notably THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG.

Moffat has dug back into that and expanded on it. After all, we are in America and so we have American Gothic, complete with a mad Southern orphanage keeper with messages written in blood on the walls of his ruined orphanage and the companions running around with strange markings on their faces while being shot down by the FBI.... paranoia run rampant and a happy ending.....along with the usual hairpin plot turns, silly lines and another cliffhanger.

Bless Steven Moffat's sick little imagination. And curse him, too.

Hi Mr Moffat, I really like your work, but please - my brain hurts. Can the next episode just show the Doctor running away from some Zygons in a quarry on Southern England.

There is a fine line between complicated ( which is OK, there is enough dumbed down TV on the other side ) and downright confusing.

Your enjoyment is tempered when you have to pause and rewind BBC iPlayer every 10 minutes.

EFFECTS - great, ACTORS - brilliant, SETS - didn't wobble, ALIENS - not blokes in rubber suits.

PLOT - can you just run that past me again, and can I have a pad and pen to make notes ? I am sure it will all be explained and all fit together later.

I feel dizzy - anyone got a jellybaby ?

Amy, River and the Doctor are rounded up and imprisoned by Canton. Which allows them to rescue River and crack on with the problem at hand, The Silence. Canton and Amy head to the Orphanage where she was, but the Silence have been there first. Whilst the Doctor, River and Rory head to the imminent space mission of Neil Armstrong, on its eve of launch, to do something rather clever.

It is absolutely all over the place as a story, for someone that didn't know the show they would not enjoy it, it jumps from one character to another, not one for the new fan. My main grim with Moffat's writing is that it does tend to be a little smug, and I get that here, the script keeps applauding itself. And why the hell is Frances Barber wearing an eye patch looking through a door!! This episode asks way more questions, and doesn't really answer any, it is very heavily embedded in a big story arc.

For all the criticisms though I really do like it, it's clever in a way that keeps you engrossed, if you take your eye off for a minute you've had it. It's wonderfully creepy and the scares are big, those monsters are scary, and that Orphanage is bleak. The fight scenes look big and work really well. Love River Song, and hope she's back soon.

Now I always used to love to watch Dr Who on a Saturday Night after a night out, no chance with this one, the Script and alcohol, don't mix :-)