Heaven Sent: poster and trailer

The penultimate episode of the current series of Doctor Who airs tonight at 8.05pm on BBC One. Here are the episode poster and trailer:

Designed by Stuart Manning

Doctor Who ratings: Sleep No More hits new low

Last week's episode of Doctor Who was the lowest rated and charted episode of the modern era. Series 8 is currently averaging ratings of 6 million, over 1.2 million lower than last year.  However, the last three episodes are likely to improve the average and the show is still performing better than in many periods of its long history:

	Highest Rated Episode	Highest Charted Episode	Lowest Rated Episode	Lowest Charted Episode
William Hartnell	The Web Planet (13.50m)	The Web Planet (7th)	The Smugglers: Episode 1 (4.30m)	The Smugglers: Episode 1 (109th)
Patrick Troughton	The Krotons: Episode One (9.00m)	The Power of the Daleks: Episode One(43rd)	The War Games: Episode Eight (3.50m)	The Space Pirates: Episode Six (98th)
Jon Pertwee	The Three Doctors: Episode Four (11.90m)	Planet of the Daleks: Episode One (9th)	Inferno: Episode 3 (4.80m)	The Time Warrior: Part Three (89th)
Tom Baker	City of Death: Part Four (16.10m) - HIGHEST EVER	The Ark in Space: Part Two (5th)	Full Circle: Part Two (3.70m)	Full Circle: Part Two (170th) - LOWEST EVER
Peter Davison	Castrovalva: Part Four (10.40m)	Time-Flight: Part One (26th)	Frontios: Part Four (4.60m)	Frontios: Part Four (115th)
Peter Davison (Special)	The Five Doctors (7.7m)	The Five Doctors (54th)	N/A	N/A
Colin Baker	Attack of the Cybermen: Part One (8.9m)	Attack of the Cybermen: Part One (61st)	The Trial Of A Time Lord (The Mysterious Planet): Part Four (3.70m)	The Mark of the Rani: Part One (111th)
Sylvester McCoy	Silver Nemesis: Part One (6.10m)	Time and the Rani: Part Three / Paradise Towers: Part Four (57th)	Battlefield: Part One (3.10m) - LOWEST EVER	The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: Part Three (108th)
Paul McGann	The TV Movie (9.08)	The TV Movie (17th)	N/A	N/A
Christopher Eccleston	Rose (10.81m)	Rose (7th)	Bad Wolf (6.81m)	The Empty Child (20th)
David Tennant	Journey's End (10.57m)	Journey's End (1st) - HIGHEST EVER	The Satan Pit (6.08m)	Silence in the Library (27th)
David Tennant (Specials)	The End of Time: Part Two (12.27m)	The End of Time: Part One & Part Two (1st) - HIGHEST EVER	The Runaway Bride (9.38m)	The Runaway Bride (10th)
Matt Smith	The Eleventh Hour (10.08m)	The Eleventh Hour (3rd)	The Lodger (6.44m)	Nightmare in Silver (22nd)
Matt Smith (Specials)	The Day of The Doctor (12.8)	The Doctor,  The Widow and the Wardrobe / The Day of The Doctor / The Time of the Doctor (3rd)	The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (10.77m)	A Christmas Carol (4th)
Peter Capaldi	Deep Breath (9.17m)	Deep Breath (2nd)	Sleep No More (5.61m)	Sleep No More  (28th)
Peter Capaldi (Specials)	Last Christmas (8.28m)	Last Christmas (7th)	N/A	N/A

Doctor Who review: Face the Raven

One thing 21st century Doctor Who does much better than the 1963-1989 run is building up the emotional departures of companions.   Rose, Donna, Amy and Rory all left the TARDIS in quite tragic circumstances.  Science fiction plot developments contrived to permanently separate these companions from the Doctor.  However until now, the new series has not risked traumatising fans with the death of a companion.   Although Jenna Coleman is expected to be seen in some role in the series finale, Clara's demise in Face the Raven has a powerful impact.

The episode has great tension from the pre-titles sequence onwards.  Rigsy (Jovian Wade), who we previously met in the excellent Flatline, phones the TARDIS after discovering a countdown tattoo on the back of his neck.   The Doctor explains that Rigsy has been "retconned" which is why he cannot remember how he got the tattoo.  This term was first used in the spin-off series Torchwood and the dark premise of this episode would have fitted well within that show.   The Doctor realises that Rigsy's tattoo is in fact a "chronolock" and it will kill him when it expires.  A countdown is an effective plot device for a suspenseful single episode and has previously been used in 42 and The Mummy on the Orient Express.  Although this series has sometimes drawn on too much continuity, the reappearance of Rigsy works very well within this episode.  Face the Raven raises the emotional stakes by putting a likeable returning character, who is now a father, under threat.

The Doctor leads Clara and Rigsy in a search for a mysterious "trap street", a rumoured alien enclave hidden within London.  Wearing the sonic sunglasses, Clara hangs out of the TARDIS door looking for the trap street below.  Although it seems implausible that this was the best way to locate the street, this scene illustrates Clara's increasingly reckless behaviour which will lead to her downfall.    If Clara had not been sidelined so often in previous episodes of the series, this character development could have been explored more.   Although it is likely that the loss of Danny Pink has affected her, Clara's behaviour may across as quite foolish and this is a shame for a character who was established as intelligent in Series 7 and 8.

The concept of the trap street will be familiar to fans of Harry Potter but it is original to Doctor Who and the set design of the street is excellent.  The street is explained to home alien refugees and this thematically ties in with the Zygon two-parter.  The camp is governed by Ashildr or "Mayor Me" in her third appearance this series.  The episode would have worked fine using a new character in this role but the reintroduction of Maisie Williams adds a further level of intrigue.   Ashildr is a morally ambiguous and predictable character: neither the Doctor or the audience quite know what to expect of her.   It is another strong performance from Williams and is unlikely to be her last appearance.

Ashildr explains that Rigsy has been sentenced to death for murder and when the timer runs out, the Raven, a quantum shade, will take his soul .  When the Doctor and Clara split up to investigate what really happened to the murdered alien Anah, she discovers that the chronolock can be passed on to someone else.  It is a terrible misjudgement when Clara persuades Rigsy to pass on the chronolock to her.  She confidently thinks this is a clever Doctorish plan but hasn't fully understood the process. However, she is also motivated by compassion for Rigsy and his family.

The Doctor eventually works out that he has been set up.  Anah was in fact alive and had been trapped in a statis field.  By releasing her, the Doctor is locked to a teleport chain which will transport him away to an unknown destination.  The audience's concern for the Doctor is diverted by the realisation that Clara is doomed: she cannot be released from the chronolock. The acting between Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman is superb.  The Doctor is talked out of his rage by Clara who bravely faces her death.  She tells him to remain a doctor rather than a warrior remembering the John Hurt's broken "War Doctor". When Clara's finally faces the raven, Coleman's performance and Murray Gold's music stir the emotions although Capaldi's reactions are more controlled than those of David Tennant and Matt Smith would have been in the circumstances,

Although the series hasn't served Clara's character that well, this is a flawless episode which provides a superb ending to her story.  Writer Sarah Dollard has crafted a brilliant plot which is fresh, unpredictable and very moving.  Showrunner Steven Moffat has a high standard to maintain in his final two episodes.  If he succeeds, this could go down as one of the greatest series of Doctor Who of all time.

Face the Raven: poster and trailer

The tenth episode of the current series of Doctor Who airs on BBC One tonight at 8.10pm:

Designed by Stuart Manning

Spectre nears $550 million worldwide

In under 4 weeks, Spectre has made over half a billion US dollars at the worldwide cinema box-office.  The film currently remains at Number 1 in both the UK and US chart.

Spectre will soon become the second highest grossing James Bond film of all time:

1              Skyfall                                 $1.1 billion                

2              Casino Royale                     $599 million

3              Quantum of Solace             $586 million

4              Spectre                                 $549 million                  

5              Die Another Day                 $432 million

6              The World Is Not Enough  $362 million

7              GoldenEye                           $352 million  

8              Tomorrow Never Dies         $333 million   

9              Moonraker                           $210 million   

10            License to Kill                      $156 million

Doctor Who review: Sleep No More

This is the eighth episode Mark Gatiss has written for Doctor Who and his first with in a futuristic setting.  Although it is a more adventurous episode than traditional tales such as The Unquiet Dead, Cold War and Robin of Sherwood, overall it is less satisfying.

The found footage style is effective within low-budget horror films (The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity) which rely on suggestion and slow-building suspense but doesn't work so well in this fast-paced and elaborate story.   However, to Gatiss's credit, he does subvert the form through revelations in the plot.  

At the beginning of the episode, we believe we are seeing the characters through their head-cams of the rescue team.  The three of the four actors playing the rescue team are played of British-Asian descent and the Doctor recognises the space station as belonging to the "Indo-Japanese" in the 38th century.  The use of ethnically diverse cast is welcome although it unclear why Nagata (Elaine Tan) is played with a strong Geordie accent.  Diversity is also provided by the casting of trans actress Bethany Black as the genetically engineered "grunt" 474.  Although the set-up of this guest cast is interesting, the characters are not developed as the episode goes on and are ultimately quite forgettable.

Surprising for a found footage episode we see the monsters very soon after we first hear them.  In appearance, the Sandmen are traditional slow-moving "men in rubber suit" monsters that are not that dissimilar from the Time Zombies from Journey to the Centre of the Tardis (2013).  

The set design is far more impressive than the design of the creatures.  Particularly impressive are the Morpheus sleep pods and the digital effects such as the Mister Sandmen singing holograms.  Reece Shearsmith plays Rassmussen, the inventor of the Morpheus technology.  Shearsmith is well cast in this role and is likely to have been the choice of his former League of Gentlemen colleague Gatiss. Interestingly, his character has similarities to Gatiss's Professor Lazarus from The Lazarus Experiment (2007):  both are scientists who anger the Doctor by inventing machines which disrupt natural order and have deadly side-effects.  The Doctor swiftly surmises that the Sandmen are this side-effect: creatures which have evolved out of the sleep dust from people's eyes. a mutation caused by the Morpheus process.  This is a very odd and unconvincing idea which is possibly even more wacky than the Moon-egg concept from last year's Kill the Moon (although the final scene seems to suggest another explanation).  Furthermore, the Doctor predicts that these creatures could are powerful enough to wipe out the human race.

The Doctor appears to be correct with his theory although there are further twists.  We learn that rather than head-cams, the action has been recorded through the dust in people's eyes.  However, the final scene then seems to suggest that some or all of what we have just seen did not what really happen.  It is suggested that the Sandmen will actually take over humanity through a signal in the film we have just watched.  Overall, Sleep No More is a collection of clever ideas which don't fully form a dramatic and coherent story.  

Sleep No More: poster and trailer

The ninth episode of the current series Doctor Who airs at 8.15pm on BBC One tonight.
Here is the latest retro poster and the episode trailer:

Designed by Stuart Manning

Doctor Who review: The Zygon Inversion

For the first time in this series, Jenna Coleman gets a substantial role in this Doctor Who episode, not just as Clara but also her Zygon double Bonnie.  The episode opens inside Clara's mind while she is held unconscious inside the Zygon pod.  Last week's cliffhanger is cleverly resolved when Clara is able to telepathically cause Bonnie to miss with her first rocket, allowing the Doctor and Osgood to parachute out of the plane before the second one hits.  

Strangely there is no mention of the other people who were seen on the plane in last week's episode. Presumably they were all killed but the witty dialogue exchanges between the Doctor and Osgood start up again when they land.  A scene of a plane being shot down by a rocket launcher is also in questionable taste after last year's disaster of the Malaysian Airlines plane destroyed over Ukraine.  

Last week's episode suggested a Zygon uprising was imminent but this week the focus is on Bonnie's attempts to locate the mysterious "Osgood Box".  Other than a brief snippet from a TV report about a Zygon sighting there is limited sense of crisis in this episode.  There is a lot of wandering around and a lack of suspense until the final confrontation scenes.  

A twist many would have seen coming was the reveal that Kate Stewart had survived and was posing as a Zygon double.  Her use of the phrase "five rounds rapid" when explaining how she survived is reference to her father the Brigadier who said the line in The Daemons (1971).  This is enjoyable to those with a classic Doctor Who DVD collection but for the majority of the audience may have made Kate seem very cold hearted.  Unfortunately, after her promising introduction in The Power of Three (2012), the character of Kate Stewart hasn't been developed greatly, and she is is not well served by this script.

The most powerful scene of the two-parter is the climax in UNIT's "Black Archive" where Kate and Bonnie are considering using the two Osgood Boxes which they believe can be end the conflict in their favour.   Both boxes have two buttons labelled "Truth" and "Consequences".  The link between the boxes and the New Mexico town, also known as "Truth or Consequences", from the previous episodes is not explained.  It seems possible that the Zygons arrival in the town may have been the result of a misunderstanding but it would have been better to have a line or two of dialogue to confirm this.  An advantage of the two-parter format is that it allows time for longer dialogue scenes and here gives the Doctor a chance to deliver a lengthy and passionate speech to Bonnie and Kate as he attempts to persuade them in favour of peace and reconciliation.  The Doctor succeeds in showing both characters the consequences of their actions and the scene is one Capaldi's greatest in the role so far.

The Zygon Inversion doesn't totally satisfy as a concluding episode to a two-part story and it feels as if this both parts could have been edited down to a great one hour special.  Although the Black Archive scene is brilliant, there is a lot of filler in this second episode, and also too much continuity referencing and some awkward shifts in tone.  However, overall the story deserves high praise for some very intelligent dialogue and its treatment of serious moral and political themes.

Doctor Who review: The Zygon Invasion

Much like the opening two-parter to this series, The Zygon Invasion takes risks with the casual viewer by drawing heavily on continuity.    It works as a sequel to The Day of the Doctor which drew a massive 12.8 million viewers in 2013.  The small minority of viewers who missed that special episode may have been baffled by the flashbacks to scenes with the Tenth, Eleventh and War Doctors in the pre-titles sequence. Although it is rewarding for long-term fans, this level of continuity may be one reason why audience numbers for Doctor Who has dropped off this year.

The episode focuses heavily on the character of Osgood who was introduced in The Day of the Doctor before being killed by Missy in last year's finale Death in Heaven.  Osgood's double however lives on although it is never confirmed whether this is the human original or the Zygon who took her form. There is a good message behind this secret: that the race someone belongs to should not affect whether or not we trust them. It is also made clear that the majority of the 20 million Zygons that have assimilated into the Earth population live peacefully and only a small splinter group are threatening war.

The use of the term "radicalised" to describe the Zygon splinter group makes it clear that the story is partly a metaphor for the Islamic terrorism.  Immigration is also addressed when the Doctor later jokes to a Zygon that the rebels can't have the UK as a home because the people think they will "pinch their benefits".  The script is little heavy in signposting these subtexts but it is good to see Doctor Who return to addressing contemporary social themes.

The Zygons have apparently evolved since their previous appearances now being able to create human duplicates from human memories.  This enables them to play mind games with the UNIT troops sent to attack their base in "Turmezistan".  We cut between this location, London and New Mexico where Kate Stewart goes to investigate the disappearance of Osgood. This gives an impressive epic scope to the episode; something that was often lacking in the Russell T.Davies era when alien invasions tended to centre on the UK and other locations were only seen through TV news bulletins.

The Doctor rescues Osgood and she becomes his companion for the rest of the story.  Interesting, Clara has only performed the traditional Doctor's companion role in three of the first eight episodes of the series and has been largely separated from him in the other five.  The Doctor describes Osgood as a "hybrid" and this is the third time in the series this term has arose this year, suggesting a possible theme for the series finale.

Meanwhile Clara and a group of UNIT troops undercover a Zygon base under London.  The set design and lighting of this is very consistent with the inside of the spaceship in 1975's The Terror of the Zygons.  It turns out that Clara had already been replaced by an alien duplicate and she has led the soldiers into a trap.  Such a twist was to be expected in a story about a race of shapeshifters but Jenna Coleman performs the role of the Zygon "Bonnie" very well, not overdoing the "evil acting".  A further twist reveals when an American cop reveals herself to be a Zygon to Kate Stewart and apparently kills her.  However, this is doubtful because we don't see Kate's death and it seems unlikely that the Brigadier's daughter would be killed off.

The cliffhanger sees Bonnie apparently shooting down the plane bringing the Doctor and Osgood back to the UK with a rocket launcher.  This is an exciting end to another solid entertaining episode.   The consistent quality of Series 9 continues only The Witch's Familiar matches the excellence of the best episodes from last year.

The Zygon Inversion: poster and trailer

The eighth episode of the current series Doctor Who airs at 8pm on BBC One tonight.
Here is the latest retro poster and the episode trailer:

Designed by Stuart Manning

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride Teaser

A new short trailer for the Sherlock special which airs on January 1st in the UK and USA:

Colin Baker introduces horror comedy Neighbours from Hell

Colin Baker has filmed an introductory video for his upcoming film Neighbours in Hell.  In the horror comedy, Baker  will play "The Demon".

The video was posted on director Jim Eames's Vimeo page:

From www.nfhellmovie.co.uk

Spectre breaks UK box office records

The new James Bond film Spectre has achieved the highest seven day gross in UK cinema history. The film has made £41.3 million so far and is on course to be at least the second highest grossing Bond film of all time at the UK box office.  It is already in fourth place and only needs to make another £10 million to overtake Quantum of Solace.  It remains to be seen whether the film has the playability to make the extra £62 million needed to overtake Skyfall.

The Top Five Highest Grossing James Bond Films at UK Cinemas:

1) Skyfall (2012) - £103 million

2) Casino Royale (2006) - £56 million

3) Quantum of Solace (2008) - £51 million 

4) Spectre (2015) - £41 million - after seven days

5) Die Another Day (2002) - £36 million

Videos from the official James Bond 007 YouTube channel.

The Woman Who Lived - Final ratings

The sixth episode of the year's series of Doctor Who, The Woman Who Lived, was watched by 6.11 million UK viewers within one week of its transmission (not including online views via BBC iPlayer).    The episode charted as the 25th most viewed television programme of the week.

This is the lowest charting Peter Capaldi episode so far and the second lowest of the new series era after Silence in the Library in 2007.  However, The Woman Who Lived has charted higher than any episode starring Patrick Troughton, Peter Davison, Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor.

Here is an updated overview of how all 12 Doctors have fared in the ratings:

	Highest Rated Episode	Highest Charted Episode	Lowest Rated Episode	Lowest Charted Episode
William Hartnell	The Web Planet (13.50m)	The Web Planet (7th)	The Smugglers: Episode 1 (4.30m)	The Smugglers: Episode 1 (109th)
Patrick Troughton	The Krotons: Episode One (9.00m)	The Power of the Daleks: Episode One (43rd)	The War Games: Episode Eight (3.50m)	The Space Pirates: Episode Six (98th)
Jon Pertwee	The Three Doctors: Episode Four (11.90m)	Planet of the Daleks: Episode One (9th)	Inferno: Episode 3 (4.80m)	The Time Warrior: Part Three (89th)
Tom Baker	City of Death: Part Four (16.10m) - HIGHEST EVER	The Ark in Space: Part Two (5th)	Full Circle: Part Two (3.70m)	Full Circle: Part Two (170th) - LOWEST EVER
Peter Davison	Castrovalva: Part Four (10.40m)	Time-Flight: Part One (26th)	Frontios: Part Four (4.60m)	Frontios: Part Four (115th)
Peter Davison (Special)	The Five Doctors (7.7m)	The Five Doctors (54th)	N/A	N/A
Colin Baker	Attack of the Cybermen: Part One (8.9m)	Attack of the Cybermen: Part One (61st)	The Trial Of A Time Lord (The Mysterious Planet): Part Four (3.70m)	The Mark of the Rani: Part One (111th)
Sylvester McCoy	Silver Nemesis: Part One (6.10m)	Time and the Rani: Part Three / Paradise Towers: Part Four (57th)	Battlefield: Part One (3.10m) - LOWEST EVER	The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: Part Three (108th)
Paul McGann	The TV Movie (9.08)	The TV Movie (17th)	N/A	N/A
Christopher Eccleston	Rose (10.81m)	Rose (7th)	Bad Wolf (6.81m)	The Empty Child (20th)
David Tennant	Journey's End (10.57m)	Journey's End (1st) - HIGHEST EVER	The Satan Pit (6.08m)	Silence in the Library (27th)
David Tennant (Specials)	The End of Time: Part Two (12.27m)	The End of Time: Part One & Part Two (1st) - HIGHEST EVER	The Runaway Bride (9.38m)	The Runaway Bride (10th)
Matt Smith	The Eleventh Hour (10.08m)	The Eleventh Hour (3rd)	The Lodger (6.44m)	Nightmare in Silver (22nd)
Matt Smith (Specials)	The Day of The Doctor (12.8)	The Doctor,     The Widow and the Wardrobe / The Day of The Doctor / The Time of the Doctor (3rd)	The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (10.77m)	A Christmas Carol (4th)
Peter Capaldi	Deep Breath (9.17m)	Deep Breath (2nd)	Under the Lake (5.63m)	The Woman Who Lived (25th)
Peter Capaldi (Specials)	Last Christmas (8.28m)	Last Christmas (7th)	N/A	N/A

Ratings statistics sourced from the Doctor Who Guide.