So, the crew end up outside the universe in a place populated by fictional characters, playing games, and being ruled over by some all-powerful overlord. Celestial Toymaker take 2, anyone?
Happy to say, however, this one is slightly better executed than that. Not a hard feat, I admit.
The first episode is mainly faffing and the crew wandering around the TARDIS a bit as some mysterious entity tries to tempt them out. And lo and behold, tempted out they are. But the Doctor saves them all just in time for one of the more iconic images in the series history… The TARDIS breaks up in space and creates an incredibly haunting image.
Then we land in this magical realm and it’s time for a spot more wandering around.
“Oh no, now I’ve lost his face!”
Yes, Jamie loses his face. Although we do get a clever little plot device to explain why a completely different actor played Jamie for a bit when Frazer Hines went off sick…
The problem with this story is that it all seems to simply resolved. The crew wander up to the big bad, knock politely, get let in and then defeat him.
He seems too easily defeated. The central idea is that a powerful mind needs some human intelligence to create fiction. The man in the post is getting on a bit and so The Doctor is selected to replace him. But as soon as he’s plugged in, he uses the system’s own power to defeat it which seems just a bit obvious. Then Jamie and Zoe press a few buttons – at complete random – and this massive, powerful mind just blows up. Just seems all very convenient.
This one really suffers from “Nice idea, poor execution” fatigue. Not as badly as Celestial Toymaker did, I admit, but it really feels a bit hollow after an intriguing set up. 5/10.
Happy to say, however, this one is slightly better executed than that. Not a hard feat, I admit.
The first episode is mainly faffing and the crew wandering around the TARDIS a bit as some mysterious entity tries to tempt them out. And lo and behold, tempted out they are. But the Doctor saves them all just in time for one of the more iconic images in the series history… The TARDIS breaks up in space and creates an incredibly haunting image.
Then we land in this magical realm and it’s time for a spot more wandering around.
“Oh no, now I’ve lost his face!”
Yes, Jamie loses his face. Although we do get a clever little plot device to explain why a completely different actor played Jamie for a bit when Frazer Hines went off sick…
The problem with this story is that it all seems to simply resolved. The crew wander up to the big bad, knock politely, get let in and then defeat him.
He seems too easily defeated. The central idea is that a powerful mind needs some human intelligence to create fiction. The man in the post is getting on a bit and so The Doctor is selected to replace him. But as soon as he’s plugged in, he uses the system’s own power to defeat it which seems just a bit obvious. Then Jamie and Zoe press a few buttons – at complete random – and this massive, powerful mind just blows up. Just seems all very convenient.
This one really suffers from “Nice idea, poor execution” fatigue. Not as badly as Celestial Toymaker did, I admit, but it really feels a bit hollow after an intriguing set up. 5/10.