Quick review Doctor Who The Doctor's Wife

While I have never put together a list of my top ten favorite Doctor Who stories, The Doctor's Wife would make the list.
Before watching the episode, I was worried---after all, there was a lot of hype surrounding this one. People have high hopes for a Neil Gaiman written episode, and occasionally even the writing gods fail to love up to their standards (not that I am saying that Gaiman is a writing god, but some people seem to think that he is).

This story was a treat. It is one of those stories that take us to the very beginning of the series. This is going to be one of those episodes that die-hard fans are going to watch again and again, for it throws light on a lot of the mysteries of the series.

Reading the various reviews on the web of the episode, the one thing I have yet to see mentioned is the fact that the Tardis' energy appears to be the same as the regeneration energy. For those who have watched the entire season so far, think about where else we have seen these energies---is there a connection here that is still unclear?

Quick review Doctor Who The Impossible Astronaut Pt 1

*no spoilers* I watched the Impossible Astronaut Part 1, the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who, last night. Also watched the Confidential that went along with the episode.
Honestly, this is an episode that is hard to review. It felt choppy. It is also one of those episodes that you really need to see the entire season first to correctly judge.

And that is the rub. In the first ten minutes of the episode, basically the various elements of the entire season were introduced. The sinister aliens, the master mind guiding the characters actions, the baseline of the Doctor and companions personalities (for those viewers new to this group of characters), the opening puzzle, the local who is going to be a major player in the action, and the event that is going to drive the entire plot. All that was introduced in the first ten minutes.

Ironically, the first ten minutes---much like the rest of the episode---seemed to move slowly. This may not be the episode's fault. Over the last couple of days, I have re-watched both parts of The End of Time, The Eleventh Hour, The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang. Given at what is hinted about in this episode, it may have been moving fast without me being aware of the speed.

(The Confidential seemed to move quicker. Loved the parts where they talked about building the Oval Office set and the look at what a director's day is like.)

What gives me hope about this season, given this slow first episode, is that the alien menace is really scary, especially if you stop and think about the possibility that they might actually exist without your conscious awareness of them, and the fact that the Doctor and his companions are being manipulated.

So this is one of those episodes, much like some from classical Doctor Who, that one needs to look at again after the dust clears to decide whether it was worth the film that was used. Here is to the new season of Doctor Who---it can only speed up from this point.