DWO’s spoiler-free review of Episode 8.3: Robot of Sherwood:

In the build-up to Season Eight, Robot of Sherwood has often been touted as the ‘comedy’ episode of the year. The premise in itself - the Doctor meets Robin Hood! - is somewhat amusing, and automatically suggests that this is going to be something a bit special. Well, the fact is that, yes, Robot of Sherwood is a funny episode, and it works wonderfully because of that.

Back in The Rings of Akhaten, the Doctor offered Clara the opportunity to go anywhere and see anything… and her mind went blank. The sheer enormity of choice offered by the TARDIS was far too great to choose one single moment in all of time and space. Eighteen months on, though, she’s gotten the hang of this time-travel lark, and she knows exactly who she wants to meet.

The ‘celebrity historical’ episodes have been a staple of Doctor Who since its 2005 return, taking us to meet the likes of Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill and Agatha Christie. In Season Seven we saw the format shaken up with an historical figure - Queen Nefertiti - being brought into the future. Robot of Sherwood shakes the format up once again, taking the TARDIS and dropping it directly into the legend of Robin Hood.

All the elements that you could want are here - the band of Merry Men, the Evil Sheriff, and the oppressed villagers. And then, of course, there’s the man himself, complete with a little green hat. If the story can be really compared to an earlier ‘celebrity historical’, then it’s closest in style to 2007’s The Shakespeare Code, with our resident celebrity being a little bit too full of himself - he is the Robin Hood, after all. Tom Riley shines in the part, and watching him spar with the Twelfth Doctor is fantastic.

Where the episode really sings, though, is in the direction. Paul Murphy makes his Doctor Who debut here, and he certainly arrives in style, keeping you hooked throughout. Right from the start, and the way he chooses to shoot the TARDIS set, you know you’re in for something rather special, and that doesn’t stop as the story goes on.

All the talk of comedy in the script can threaten to under-sell the drama in the story, and there’s plenty of that here. Three episodes in, Clara and the new Doctor are getting more used to each other now, and this episode is perhaps the first time that the pair have really felt comfortable travelling together. This is still an incarnation who can be a bit more aloof and alien than some of his more recent predecessors, but here he feels closer to the Doctor that we’ve come to know and love, and pitting the legend of the Doctor against the legend of Robin Hood is a great way to examine his quest to find himself… 

Five things to look out for:

1) "It’s not a competition to see who can die slower."

2) There’s references to First and Third Doctor stories, and a more oblique reference to the Second Doctor…

3) "Old fashioned heroes only exist in old fashioned story books."

4) "Always carry a spoon!"

5) "Usefulness expired."

[Sources: DWO; Will Brooks]

DWO’s spoiler free preview of Episode 8.2: Into the Dalek:

The Daleks have been locked in a constant battle with the Doctor ever since the second story way back in 1963, and every incarnation of the Time Lord has faced off against them at some time in some form. The Twelfth Doctor wastes no time in coming face-to-eye-stalk with his greatest foes - as they turn up in his very own second story, Into The Dalek.

The episode is very much Fantastic Voyage - a 1966 movie, in which a group of scientists are miniaturised and injected into a person’s bloodstream - meets a war film, and there’s plenty of spectacle to be seen with Daleks being blown up left right and centre. It’s in this element that Into The Dalek is most successful, and at times it’s one of the nicest looking episodes of Doctor Who ever. Director Ben Wheatley, who also helmed last week’s Deep Breath, has clearly revelled in the chance to destroy the Doctor’s greatest enemies, and it’s easy to see why new Doctor Peter Capaldi turned up to set on his day off just to watch.

We get to see the Daleks in a slightly different light here. They’ve not got some big, season-ending scheme for universal conquest, but rather are just tearing their way through the galaxy, making sure to wipe out anything that stands in their way. It doesn’t feel as though they’re plotting and planning at all, but rather just getting on with what they do best - exterminating. The absence of any master plan for the creatures means that we’ve got more time to explore the way that the Doctor feels about them, and though the explosions may look lovely, they’re just window dressing to a story that looks into a Dalek’s - and the Doctor’s - soul.

The Twelfth Doctor hasn’t lightened up here from the last episode - he’s still a colder character than we would expect from either of his immediate predecessors, but it’s nice to see him face up to his greatest foe so early on. It feels as though we’ve ticked a box, and you can clearly see why it’s an important step on this incarnation’s journey to ‘find himself’.

It’s also a chance for Clara (Jenna Coleman) to continue getting used to this very different man in her life, and she serves as a nice moral compass for him. There’s an introduction for the character of Danny Pink, welcoming Samuel Anderson to the programme, too, which feels as though we’re setting up all the pieces for the next stage of the programme’s life.

There’s little else to say without spoiling the episode for you, so we’ll leave it there, but if you’re a fan of the Daleks, or have been following the Doctor’s conflict with them for a long time, you’ll not be disappointed… 

Five things to look out for:

1) You can always find something to distract you.

2) Is he mad, or is he right?

3) Clara doesn’t know… and neither does the Doctor.

4) It’s a roller-coaster with you lot…

5) Don’t be lasagne.
 

[Sources: DWO; Will Brooks]

DWO’s spoiler free preview of Episode 8.1: Deep Breath:

It’s an exciting time for Doctor Who right now, isn’t it? Last year saw the programme celebrate 50 years of adventures in time and space with real flare and style - taking this little show that went out on a Saturday tea time in 1963 and catapulting it into the television schedules around the world. Just a month later, and we watched on as Matt Smith faced down legions of the Doctor’s greatest enemies on the fields of Trenzalore, bursting with regeneration energy, before rushing back to the TARDIS to make his farewells, and setting the wheel in motion all over again.

When Peter Capaldi was announced as the new Doctor a year ago this month, the reaction was almost entirely positive. There were a few cries of anguish that he was going to be considered simply ‘too old’ to be the Doctor… but these cries largely seemed to come from Doctor Who fans who were convinced that the general public simply wouldn’t take to a Doctor in his fifties in this day and age. But on Thursday of last week, Doctor Who Online’s Will Brooks and Nick Mellish were lucky enough to attend the world premiere of Season Eight in Cardiff and we can confirm that the reaction is overwhelmingly positive.

Oh, the crowds! Hoards of screaming fans simply thrilled to see the new Doctor and Clara as they made their way down the red carpet towards the screening. Crowds made up of - yes! - children. And teens. And adults from thirty, through forty, and fifty, and right up to their eighties. Even those who’d clearly been dragged along to the event by a younger relative couldn’t help getting caught up in the thrill and magic of the event. The new Doctor had arrived, and the reaction has never been better.

But enough about all of that! You want to know about the episode itself! I can quite honestly say that sitting in that hall, I have never enjoyed an episode of Doctor Who more. Some of that has to be put down to the sheer atmosphere of the event - a crowd of people who were simply loving this new instalment in their favourite show, and who laughed, and cheered, and cried, and clapped, all at the right moments. I’ll forever associate one particular moment of the episode (and when you watch it, I’m sure you’ll be able to guess which one) with the sound of a packed auditorium simply bursting into cries of elation.

There’s been a lot of talk over the last few months about Series Eight being a ‘darker’ year of Doctor Who, with much more ‘serious’ drama and less comedy involved. I can confirm that the programme certainly has a darker edge to it, often brought in by the reactions of the new Doctor himself, but it doesn’t come at the expense of the lighter moments. Keeping the Paternoster Gang of Vastra, Jenny, and Strax, means that they’re able to help inject some well executed comedy into a story that could otherwise feel a little bit bleak. In the same way that The Christmas Invasion takes the Doctor out of action for a while, allowing the focus to be squarely on Rose and her family, here it’s the Paternosters and Clara who we really want to focus on. They’re one big support group to oversee the arrival of a very different Doctor.

The story itself, while engaging, is really secondary to the characters here. We’re watching to see how each and every one of them reacts to the regeneration, and I came away feeling like everyone had reached a decent point of acceptance about events. Although I say that people accept the change, though, that doesn’t mean that they entirely like it. Having come away from the screening someone asked me what Peter Capaldi was like as the Doctor, and the only answer I could think to give was that “He’s brilliant… but I don’t know if I like him”. That’s clearly the intention here - the Doctor’s not playing at being your best friend, or your boyfriend, or the wacky madman with a box any more. He’s a man who’s spent a long, long, time travelling the stars, and he’s done pretending. I think he’s going to be the incarnation that we all love to hate. But fear not - while I don’t like this Doctor, I do absolutely love him, and Capaldi is clearly born to play the role.

Kick-starting the era with a story directed by a name director like Ben Wheatley really does seem to be setting out stall for what the programme wants to achieve. Doctor Who has never looked more cinematic than this, and if you’ve got the chance, then I’d certainly recommend making the trip to see this story when it’s screened in a cinema. It’s a character piece nicely suited to the small screen, but with beautiful visual sequences simply made to be seen projected onto a cinema screen.

It’s now less than two weeks until Doctor Who returns to the saturday night schedules, for its longest continuous run since 2011. We’ve a fantastic new lead actor, a supporting cast of characters who are turning in stellar performances, and a programme that feels like it’s been given a real shot of adrenaline. Hold on tight - we’re in for a heck of a ride…

Five things to look out for:

1) The Doctor is Scottish now - that means he can complain about things.

2) That’s not a hat… that’s hair. 

3) Where do the Doctor's new faces come from?

4) We don’t get a ‘choosing the new costume’ scene here, but the Doctor does get to test drive several outfits before finding his ‘look’.

5) How long can you hold your breath?

[Sources: DWO, Will Brooks]

DWO’s spoiler-free preview of episode 7.9 Hide:

Legends exist throughout time about the ‘Ghast of Caliburn House’ - a spectral figure caught in a moment of abject fear and terror stalking the halls of the house. The house has stood for 400 years, but the ghost is far older than that. She’s held many names over the centuries, and now the Doctor has arrived to solve her mystery. 

For the first half of its running time, Hide is part Ghost Stories for Christmas and part Most Haunted, as the Doctor and Clara team up with Professor Alec Palmer (Dougray Scott) and Empathic Psychic Emma Grayling (Jessica Raine) for a night in the house in November 1974. Palmer and Grayling, along with the Doctor and Clara, carry the weight of much of the episode, while the four of them hunt the ghost through the halls of the house. 

It’s in this part of the story that the episode really sings, building up a nice amount of traditional ghost story terror, and providing plenty of opportunities to make you jump. It also gives us another great chance to see Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman sharing the screen. The pair of them continue to work well together - it’s telling that while this was the first episode shot with the current version of Clara, the two feel like they’ve been travelling for a while. 

Clara’s continuing to find her feet throughout this episode: she’s not as sure about time travel as some of the Doctor’s other companions have been. Hide plays with the slightly interesting idea that the Doctor and Clara don’t really trust each other, but that they just get on with the adventure - having an empath around certainly allows each of them to be given a few clues about the other. 

Once the story has moved on from the early ghost story feeling and starts to reach outside the confines of the house it somewhat loses its atmosphere, and risks becoming A. N. Other Doctor Who adventure. Though the series has often gone out of its way to find a more scientific explanation for supernatural phenomena, the interesting idea behind this ghost seems to get a bit lost during translation to the screen, leaving the latter half of the episode less interesting than the set-up.

There’s plenty to love throughout the tale, though, including some fantastic direction from series newcomer Jamie Payne throughout, whose style is a perfect fit for a ghost story. This, coupled with the iconic ‘haunted house’ look of Hide really is one of the highlights.

Five things to look out for...

1) “It’s 1974 - you’re the assistant”

2) Ignorance is Carlisle.

3) A blue crystal from Metebilis III plays a vital role.

4) Whiskey is the 11th most disgusting thing ever invented. 

5) “Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it!”

[Sources: DWO; Will Brooks]

DWO's spoiler-free preview of episode 7.8 Cold War:

The Ice Warriors haven’t had the most lucky experience with Doctor Who over the years. After appearing in two 1960s stories, and two 1970s stories, they somewhat disappeared from the show. In the 1980s, two planned returns for the creatures were both scuppered when the series was cancelled. They’ve shown up plenty of times in comics and novels since then, but this is their first appearance in televised Who for 39 years. That’s one hell of a nap.

The Doctor and Clara - headed for Vegas, but getting the direction a little wrong - arrive on a Soviet submarine in the mid-1980s. Following an expedition to the North Pole, the sub is carrying a very precious cargo: a creature found perfectly preserved in the ice. As curiosity gets the better of the crew, disastrous consequences await them...

Coming after two adventures set in big, open places - filled with panoramic views of modern London, or overlooking an alien vista with a parasitic sun - the most striking thing about Cold War is the claustrophobia of the episode. The feeling of being trapped on an submarine, with a vengeful alien bearing down on you really comes across, and director Douglass Mackinnon really sells the feeling of entrapment, and ramps up the tension as time runs out for the Doctor and the crew. 

Praise also needs to be given for just how... wet the set is throughout. Almost every scene features the sub leaking from somewhere, with water streaming down the walls. Visually, it’s quite unlike anything we’ve seen in the programme before - and it’s gorgeous.

Of course, the thing that everyone is waiting on this episode for is the reappearance of an Ice Warrior to the series. It’s pleasing that the design of the creature remains true to what we’ve seen in the series before now, and proof that some Doctor Who monsters are so fantastic that they don’t need a big overhaul to make them acceptable to twenty-first century viewers. We see the advancement of the Ice Warrior, though, and it performs a trick that even the Doctor hasn’t seen one do before.

Ice Warrior aside, this is another important step for Clara as a companion - her first trip back into history. Following on from last week’s episode, it helps to establish the rules of the programme again for a new companion, and an audience that might have joined since Amy Pond ventured into World War Two in 2010 (in another script by Mark Gatiss, who pens this week’s instalment). There’s plenty of opportunity for Clara to learn about life in the TARDIS: it can get very real sometimes. 

Elsewhere, David Warner as Grisenko steals the show, puncturing all the end-of-the-world macho-ness with a wonderfully fun performance, roaming the corridors of the submarine singing the hits of the day. Warner’s character is fairly representative of the story as a whole. For all the danger of the Ice Warrior and the threat to the world, Cold War is a very funny episode, filled with great dialogue that really gives the cast - and especially Matt Smith - a chance to shine. 

Five things to look out for...

1) It’s probably a mammoth.

2) An Ice Warrior isn’t the only Second Doctor-era invention to appear in this episode.

3) The Doctor is always serious. With days off. 

4) Polar Bears are cuddlier than Ice Warriors.

5) It’s not a mammoth. 

[Sources: DWO, Will Brooks]

SFX Magazine have exclusively revealed that Classic Series villains, The Ice Warriors, will return in Series 7 of Doctor Who.

Speaking to SFX in an exclusive interview, Executive Producer, Caro Skinner, had the following to say regarding their eturn:

“We’ve got the most fantastic episode by Mark Gatiss, where we are bringing back the Ice Warrior… on a submarine! It’s a really wonderful kind of ‘bunker’ episode, and a classic monster which Mark has brought his own inimitable twist to.

We wanted to bring them back because they’re wonderful! In the mix of stories that we were planning for this year it felt as if doing something very bold with a monster that hadn’t been seen for a while would be really cool. Mark is an enormous fan of the Ice Warrior stories and came up with the idea. The sense of a monster of that scale and that size trapped in a really small, contained environment such as a submarine was a really brilliant story to be able to tell. And obviously we’ve had a huge amount of fun going back to the traditional designs and recreating them, bringing the Ice Warriors back to life again.

They were such a beautiful original design, and are genuinely really scary in terms of what they look like as they’re coming towards you in that armour. Letting a huge Ice Warrior loose at the heart of a classic Hunt For Red October style submarine movie was exactly the kind of story that the Doctor should get mixed up in.

They’ve got really scary voices as well. I spent quite a lot of time on set trying to hiss like an Ice Warrior...”

Armed with lethal sonic technology, the reptillian warmongers first tangled with Patrick Troughton’s Doctor in 1967′s “The Ice Warriors”, returning two years later in “The Seeds Of Death”. Jon Pertwee’s incarnation encountered them in 1972′s “The Curse Of Peladon” and 1974′s “The Monster Of Peladon”. Traditionally seen as one of the show’s 'Big Four' pantheon of monsters – along with The Daleks, The Cybermen and The Sontarans – the militaristic Martians won a throwaway mention in 2009′s “The Waters Of Mars” but have remained unseen in the 21st Century series.

Watch a clip from The Ice Warriors, below:

[youtube:HMGJCssAXL0]

[Source: SFX Magazine]

The BBC Doctor Who website is looking ahead to the Series 6 USA episodes, with a week of US-themed wallpapers, video clips and jigsaws.

The first clip, which we have included below, was aired on the BBC America website and channel, and features The Doctor and Amy in the Utah desert:

 Check Out the BBC Doctor Who website!

[Source: BBC Doctor Who website]

The fourth and final episode of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, Shadows of the Vashta Nerada, is now online.

Following on from the ending of third episode TARDIS, it features a plot surrounding a real-world conspiracy and is set in a seabed colony called Poseidon.

The game was initially due to be released on Christmas Day, but as an early treat, fans can now download the episode for both PC and Mac for free from the BBC Doctor Who website.

[Source: BBC Doctor Who website]

The fourth and final episode of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will be released on Christmas Day, it has been confirmed.

Titled 'Shadows Of Vashta Nerada', it will feature the first appearance of the shadow monsters since their debut in 'Silence In The Library' and 'Forest Of The Dead'.

Following on from the ending of third episode 'TARDIS', it will feature a plot surrounding a real-world conspiracy and is set in a seabed colony called Poseidon.

"We’ve gone all-out for the season finale. 'Shadows of the Vashta Nerada' takes place entirely underwater - something which would be impossible for the TV series, as water is so expensive," said executive producer Steven Moffat.

"It’s thrilling, terrifying, educational and fun. Just steer clear of those shadows..."

UK licence fee payers can download the episode for both PC and Mac for free from the BBC website.

[Source: Digital Spy]

The next series of Doctor Who will not feature any old monsters according to executive producer Piers Wenger.

The new series, the sixth since Doctor Who was revived in 2005, will instead feature new monsters. This means its unlikely that the Daleks, Cybermen or other enemies from the original series or indeed the more recent past will be back next year. When asked about the possibility of old monsters featuring in the next series Wenger said;

"No, we're bigger fans of new monsters. That's where we are. I think Steven's written the best new "Doctor Who" monsters in a long time in the [season] opening two-parter. That's where our energies are focused, really.."

The statement by Wenger could of course be a little white lie to keep fans in the dark over any planned returns.

 Read the full interview with Piers Wenger at Crave Online.

[Source: Crave Online]