Doctor Who Review: The Power of Three

I heard some exciting news today. In a Radio Times interview, Matt Smith confirmed he will be with the show in 2014, so we will have The Doctor and Clara for another series. They released a video explaining how Strax was "brought back to life." It's called "The Battle of Demon's Run: Two Days Later." There is a teaser video of The Doctor choosing some clothes, and in another there is a warning video that was probably uploaded warning people about something in the wifi.  All these videos are at the site I mentioned, you can get there from here.

They also released the titles to all episodes but the finale, when River Song returns.

• The Bells of Saint John
• The Rings of Akhaten
• Cold War
• Hide
• Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
• The Crimson Horror
• Nightmare in Silver
• ? Finale

"The Power of Three" opens in July, with Amy and Rory checking voicemails and throwing out expired food, obviously just back from travelling with The Doctor. They discuss the possibility of stopping their travels, but at the sound of the TARDIS they put that decision off. There are some good flashes of them with The Doctor over the past couple of years. The intro was one of the best, kind of bluish with pinkish lights in the clouds. There also seemed to be some type of electric webbing type of flash that showed up when the TARDIS gets close to the clouds of the vortex. For the titles the vortex is a bright salmony/coral kind of color and the titles themselves are cube textured to fit the episode.

Yay, Brian is back. And cubes everywhere, and oh look, its The Doctor hanging about. The cubes are everywhere,appearing at dawn. They seem inert, but where did they come from. Funny clip of Brian Cox being interviewed calling for a better man than him to find an answer. Brian (Rory's dad) offers up some theories you know he'd been formulating all along. The Doctor assigns him to watch the cubes.

The Doctor gets set up, being grounded with the Ponds for once. Rory starts the normal process of getting ready for work. Amy and The Doctor discuss that to them, not their friends or family, but to Amy and Rory they have been travelling with The Doctor off and on for 10 years. The Doctor comments on Amy being all grown up now.

UNIT detected the TARDIS and arrives in military fashion. Kate Stewart, head of scientific research (basically The Doctor's job with UNIT in the 70's) comes in and calms everyone. She is happy it's The Doctor. this is the Brigadiers daughter, a great tribute to the character who died the same year Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane) did. The Doctor discovered it by telephone in "The Wedding of River Song." Nobody can figure the cubes out, but they are being collected and seem to sit idly in ever nook and surface. True to real life, it was only a day before the cubes had 1,000 Twitter accounts. They decide all they can do is observe.

The Doctor gets very bored after 4 days of waiting. They find Brian in the TARDIS still watching the cubes. Bless. Amy and Rory have conflicts with their lives and can't go with The Doctor so he leaves them to it and goes off on his own. In October Amy finds herself to committing to being a bridesmaid and Rory to going from part time to full time at the hospital. Real life has started, and they like it. Will that be it? Will they simply stop travelling?

Fast forward to December. The cubes are everywhere and even started piling up in trash bins. We see creepy grill faced men in scrubs taking patients. I'm still not clear what that was, they must have needed them for testing. In June 9 months have passed since The Doctor left, but it's the Pond's anniversary and The Doctor shows up and whisks them away in the middle of their party. There had been a rumor a Zygon was coming back, apparently it was just to be mentioned once here. Amy accidentally gets engaged to Henry VIII on her anniversary. When they return, Brian notices they have on different clothes and finds out they were gone 7 weeks. He and The Doctor discuss what happens to those who travel with him. The Doctor swears Amy and Rory will not be among the few who died.

The Doctor decides to stay to have time with Amy. He tells her he misses her. He knows a separation is happening. In July the cubes come to life. They all do different things, of a very wide variety, but ultimately they gather intel. Some nice cube effects. The cubes stop after 47 minutes. They start a countdown from the number 7. I loved the logic that a cube has 7 sides, 6 outer and then the inside. The cubes open and people around them all over the world experience cardiac events.

During this The Doctor and Amy talk. He just finally asks if they are thinking of quitting, and she doesn't know yet. When he says he knows it's happening she asks why he keeps coming back. He can't quit Amy because she was the first face his present face saw, and he keeps running towards them before they fade.

The creepy grill mouth men take Brian and Rory follows. nice special effect of the ship in orbit, but off one dimension to the left. The Doctor and Amy find the portal to the ship and as the Ponds rescue Brian, The Doctor faces the Shakri. I hope I'm spelling that right. Brian's face is hilarious as he stares at the Shakri while being wheeled out of the room. The Doctor knows who they are, but thought they were a myth told to Gallifreyan children. The Doctor called them outer space pest control. They exist in all of space and time and mysteriously travel alone and together at the same time serving the word of the Tali. Again, forgive the spelling. The Tali seems to be a type of judgement day and the Shakri are trying to erase humanity before it colonizes space.

After the Shakri, a hologram, disappears The Doctor uses the cubes to send a signal to restart the hearts of the people effected. The ship will explode so The Doctor calls on his friends to run, to which Rory confides to Amy, "I'm going to miss this." Everything saved, The Doctor is off, knowing that he can't expect the Ponds will just come with him, but Brian speaks up that he doesn't think that they should give him up. The Doctor invites Brian along, but someone needs to water the plants. He simply asks The Doctor one thing, to bring them back safe. Will they come back safe or will Brian regret encouraging them?

Up next... "The Angels Take Manhattan", The Pond's final episode.

1Day 12Hours 20Minutes 10Seconds until "The Bells of Saint John"