A quick review of tonight’s “Doctor Who” coming up just as soon as we spend the night at Natty Longshoe’s Comical Castle…
The Neil Gaiman-scripted “The Doctor’s Wife” was such a terrific episode, and such an unusual one, that I assumed he’d be playing the role of Steven Moffat from the Russell T. Davies era: parachuting in once a season to tell a story unlike anything the current showrunner might.
“Nightmare in Silver,” though, was a fairly conventional, if well-executed, outing. It brought back a familiar (albeit not quite as overused in the modern era as the Daleks) “Who” villain in the Cybermen, and even left a floating body part out there in case Moffat or another writer wants to keep them around. If it deviated from recent formula at all, it was with the sequence where the Doctor’s mind was simultaneously occupied by himself and the Cyber-Planner, which gave Matt Smith some fun things to do. (Though I, like Clara, wasn’t always 100% clear who was in charge at any given moment.)
It was a fine example of its particular type of “Who” episode, and I enjoyed Warwick Davis getting to play a largely dramatic role, but after a half-season that’s felt like the show running in place, I was hoping for something more adventurous. Maybe Moffat has something big and exciting planned for next week?
It’s been a while since I’ve written about the show, so how’s everyone feeling about the Clara Oswald era so far? Feel free to talk about ’70s ghostbusters, Diana Rigg’s little red friend (in an episode where Jenny got to bust out her Emma Peel black leather outfit), etc.