laura-bonaventura1

I am not going to write any spoiler, I promise. I am watching season 2 again and the only thing I can say about this episode is: outstanding.

If you did not watch season 1 you will probably not give a chance to the show after this episode. True. But honestly, you will not understand a s**t on the next episodes too. What would be the meaning of watching Game of Thrones starting from season 3 or 4? God knows.

Many people hates Piper, I am aware of that, this is mostly a Pipercentric episode: many people just hated the episode too. Fine. I didn't. Piper is dumb, selfish, terrible, whatever: human beings are exactly like that, get over it. And by the way, Taylor Schilling is a ridiculously good actress, worth to watch her.

This episode is deliberately dark and confusing, as much as Piper is. It's a love it or leave it, to me it's 10/10.

Next Christmas I want an entire beat-box album by Black Cindy and it's a shame that Yuri and Sparkle Tits split, I wish I could see her too...

Something big (and conclusive? who knows) happens in the triangle Piper/Alex/Larry. I absolutely got Alex, she's the one in the worst and the best position. I think It's great that even if the whole prison situation is extreme some of us can still relate so much with the storyline. Another triangle, possibly even stranger, seems to arise: Mendez is apparently in love with Daya and Bennet is not that happy about it. This is certainly going to be a major plot in season 2 and I am really happy the writers found a way out from the weak pregnancy story.

Red tries to get back in charge of the kitchen by all means, but Gloria is an overmatch. Pennsatucky is seriously determined to kill Piper, whom in the meantime gets some advices from the black girls, but the overly crazy Christian has an unexpected card to play. Indeed an obsession matches easily another obsession and these two here are usually closely related in real life too.

On the 6th of June will start season 2. I watched this show because it was praised by critics (with some considerable exceptions though) and I thought it was lesbian-centered (and somehow it is) which is something we all really need in order to do a substantial coming out in front of the whole society. "Orange is the new black" is undeniably a lot more: it's about women in a place that forces them to face the truth about themselves, exactly as Piper said in "Bora Bora Bora". It is entertaining and some people may find in it irritant stereotypes, personally I don't, but if we are discussing just a single thing we never talked about before, then this is doubtless the show of the year.

Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) goes directly into the hellish spiral of apologies for the dumb-Larry-radio-show and finally faces Alex (Laura Prepon) after knowing she named her. "I love you and I f***king hate you" recaps accurately their relationship. And I love it. Larry (Jason Biggs) is currently the lame character, but he's useful to see the hilarious Cal Chapman (Michael Chernus) so I am perfectly fine with him.

In the meantime we finally find out why Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Dogget is in prison, and it's something beyond imagination, but absolutely believable. What came next it's just a natural consequence: what else a forced religious obsession can do to a drug addict? Yoga Jones (the terrific Constance Shulman) finally tells her story too. It's awkward, crazy and touching at the same time. We already guessed she killed a kid, but we didn't know how that happened. Some people is going for good, and some others are back without any redemption story to tell the others, in about 1 minute this show totally broke my heart.

I believe the entire script (especially the Pennsatucky - Jones parts) deserves a price, it is one of the most well written episodes in the entire season, a real relief for me from the slight disappointment I got from the previous one. I mean, did you see the Sister Ingalls face (played by the amazing Beth Fowler) when Piper starts her prayer? And what about Chapman's speech about religion? They totally cracked me up.

I you missed this show as I did it's time to watch it. Afterwards you can love it or leave it, there are already enough Allison Samuels out there.

I am a bit torn up about this episode: Danya (Dascha Polanco) and John (Matt McGorry) pregnancy plot is interesting but lacks of some logic in my opinion. Dascha arrived at Litchfield with Piper, so why can't they just say she was already pregnant? Is there something we don't know about Dascha's life right before prison? On the other hand George "Pornstache" Mendez (Pablo Schreiber) rehabilitation is fine, but it is coming too soon and it looks too fake to be processed.

While Larry (Jason Biggs) does the dumbest thing of his life, basically he screw up Piper permanency at Litchfield, two flashbacks finally tell us how Piper and Alex love story actually ended.

The most emotional things come from the craziest characters in the show: Suzanne (Uzo Aduba) asks Piper why everyone calls her "Crazy Eyes" and Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Dogget gives us a taste of the psychiatric department of the prison, which is usually already a nightmare even outside prisons: Taryn Manning is doing a better job day by day, she's incredible and I never imagined it could be possible to finally bring on screen the insanity of some religious people, whom seems to be pretty upset with the show.

Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) gets the best lines in this episode, from the sassy ones in the chapel to the "mother of drama" of the abandon scene. Her character is definitely controversial, it's the typical "love it or hate it" person, I personally love her, but I perfectly understand how some people finds her (and Piper) incredibly annoying, I believe this is with no doubts a victory for both the writers and the actresses, it's not that easy to create two anti-heroes and give them such an intense love story at the same time.

Finally I wish to say that since the first episode I find Wanda Bell (portrayed by Catherine Curtin) extremely funny, the way she says "Chapman!" gets me all the times.

The main plot of this episode is probably the saddest story so far: Tricia (Madeline Brewer, 23 years old ladies and gentlemen) and her downward spiral caused by heroin addiction. Certainly her tragic weaknesses and Mendez (Pablo Schreiber) heartless behavior rise some questions about Alex (Laura Prepon) who used to be on the top of the drug market. How much she should feel involved in the many other Tricias who died on the streets or in prison or at home for an heroin overdose? Honestly I would have like to see the show going a little deeper into the issue.

Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) is now convinced she can heal the other inmates with her hands and the power of Jesus flowing into her and so on and so on. She is overly crazy and hilarious, the scene with Janae Watson (played by Vicky Jeudi) is just a masterpiece.

While Piper (Taylor Schilling) and Alex are living the lesbian dream (yes, in prison, but still) and Nicky (Natascha Lyonne) the lesbian nightmare, we get to know a little more about Piper's bisexuality and how Larry came into her life.

Miss Claudette (portrayed by Michelle Hurst) finally receives a visit from the love her life Baptiste, it is like watching a short version of "Love in the time of cholera": miss Claudette is a distillation of sweetness.

This episode with all its plots is probably the one with the widest emotional content, it's 100% dramatic and contemporaneously has some of the most funny scenes we've seen so far: thank you Lord for Pennsatucky, amen!

Men love lesbians. This is what they say. What really happens is that some men and some women enjoy porn involving lesbians. But when it is about real lesbians some men and some women are just like Mr. Healy (Michael Harney), homophobes. Certainly not all homophobes lock up a lesbian, but if they could, wouldn't they just do it?

Pennsatucky (played by Taryn Manning, someone please gives this girl a Emmy or something, she's just amazing) is a brilliant character, no wonder all the Christians around are so mad at the show, they might try to stop yelling for a while and think if this is just a Jenji Kohan's fantasy or it is more likely an exact description on how some of them - in my experience a lot of them - are behaving all the time, playing with other people lives.

We find out about Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) childhood and her first (and possibly only) meeting with his rockstar father. Honestly I would watch an entire episode about her mother Diane (Kim Director). In the meantime Taiystee (Danielle Brooks) is released and we all feel like Poussey (Samira Wiley): yes we are happy for you Taystee, but damn it, we're so going to miss you! During the goodbye party Alex and Piper (Taylor Schilling) start dancing quite sensually and Pennsatucky shows them to Healy who sends Piper to SHU. even George "Pornstache" Mendez (Pablo Schreiber, remarkable actor), who was certainly enjoying the show, finds the measure unfair.

Finally we see two sides of confinement we don't usually think about: isolation through Piper's eyes - which is, in my opinion, one of the most brutish thing a human being can do to another - and the tough life outside the prison through Taystee's eyes.

While Piper is in SHU with some sort of a panic attack, we also find out something more about Nicky (Natascha Lyonne) past and we see Sophia (Laverne Cox) dealing with the real end of her relationship with Crystal (Tanya Wright): thanksgiving at Larry's place (Jason Biggs) looks now absolutely superficial. One of the things I really love about this show is how naturally it's putting things that happen outside prisons under a very different perspective.

The last two minutes are like every lesbian's dream: Piper gets out from SHU, grabs Alex and they start making out in the chapel. What a chemistry between those two... but is it going to last? Plot twist about the soundtrack: the last song "Walking Backwards" is performed by "Leagues" and the singer is a man.

Special mention for Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba) parents (that was awkwardly hilarious) and Gloria Mendoza (Selenis Leyva), I hope she will get some more space on season 2, I just love her.

The universe of "Orange is the new black" it's interesting because it's a forced female universe, and there is every kind of relationship women can build in a place like that: love, affection, friendship, hate, competition and familiar feelings. In this episode I caught an interesting parallel between Daya / Aleida (portraited by Dascha Polanco and Elizabeth Rodriguez) and Nicky / Red (Natasha Lyonne and Kate Mulgrew): the showdown of the screwed up Hispanic family and the fragile balance between a mother figure and the beloved daughter.

In the meantime Alex (Laura Prepon) get stuck in a drier and has what it seems a final clarification with Piper (Taylor Schilling).

The two plots are absolutely brilliant for two different reasons: the first one is something you do not see on TV that often, the second, besides the too obvious lines (I loved you, don't live me again bla bla), well... now I wish I said my romantic stuff through a drier too.

This series can be criticized in many ways, but it is telling us a bunch of stories that needed to be told. This episode more than the others deals with the most joyful and hurtful thing on Earth, our family. Which is not always nice, not always supportive and it is almost never what we expect, but it's the only thing that we have to face every single moment of our life and we can't just run away from it.

Movies are, or can be, many many things, nowadays they are just some things: a drama with happy ending, CGI and 3D, the same comedy repeated over and over again.

When it is about horror the American taste is in charge: creepy but still reassuringly in the end (I make some exceptions, one out of standards lately was "Drag me to hell"). This dutch movie does not match that kind of taste at all: is disturbing, brutal, perverted, humiliating and still it manage to be funny... which is the creepiest part of it.

I read some people considered the acting "poor", I wonder if they were watching Dieter Laser or someone else. Because that one was astonishing performance. I also read there is no plot. I wonder what is the plot in the mainstream horror movies though. A serial killer killing hot girls and letting clues to the police-hero-man? Some monsters in the wood killing a group of friends except one ("The evil dead" was great, the copies are rubbish)? A devil child?

"The human centipede" is not a master piece, but it is far different from the others and genuinely disturbing, there is no redemption, no happy ending, exactly as a horror movie is supposed to be. Worth to watch, there are no doubts.

I am not a big fan of Ridley Scott, still two of his movies are in my list of the "worth to re-watch it". But this one is a disaster. Starting from the cast. Good actors with a poor plot, though. The opening sequence is long and boring (I mean, we fast-forward porn, why should we watch the whole scene here?) and Cruz is underused. Cameron Diaz looks like my grandma, was she supposed to be sexy? Bardem is playing Bardem who plays Bardem in "No country for old men". Fassbender is a nice actor, too bad he can't play a role without whispering half of the movie, so annoying! Brad Pitt does what he can to save the day but... "snuff movies", really? Are we still using the snuff movies legend? What year is it? The plot manages to be messy and predictable at the same time, which is quite an achievement if you think about it. A movie you can totally miss.

After "The day of the doctor" I told myself I would have never watch this show again. Yet I was curious to see the end of a disaster.

I arrived at the conclusion that the problem is not Moffat, it is me, I am stupid and I do not understand his scripts. I do not get what is going on, I even keep forgetting what happened before:

• I did not know one can remember he/she forgot the Silence, or vicevera. I was convinced one just forget about them when they disappear, apparently I was wrong.

• I never heard about the limit of the Doctor's regenerations and I found out that the eleventh Doctor is actually the twelfth, no wait, he is the thirteenth.

• I knew the Doctor regenerates I did not know he can get old, poor Rose Tyler, if only she knew it before kissing a clone!

• The Doctor is really lucky because on Christmas (or Trenzalore) everyone is British, if they were not, he would certainly need the TARDIS for the translation.

• The crack on the wall is back: the Doctor rebooted the universe, made Rory wait for centuries and stuff, but the crack on the wall is still there and it did not change at all. I want to be a lot more clear on this point: the Kovarian blew up the TARDIS creating the crack. It makes sense doesn't it?

• In more than 300 years no one, including Tasha Lem, thought about talking to a crack on the wall and telling it how silly the whole plot is. But before disappearing the Time Lords in the crack decide to change the rules (actually the rule made up in the beginning of this episode) and let the Doctor regenerates.

• A Doctor regeneration can destroy a couple of Dalek's spaceships and a city.

• The twelfth Doctor is the one who can't drive the TARDIS.

Ridicoulous, pointless script.

Anyway, thank you Jenna Coleman for being a decent actress and a beautiful woman.

Science fiction is not about cool spaceships, aliens, 3D and special effects. If any of those things was enough to make science fiction "Armageddon" would be a masterpiece while, of course, it is not.

You can write terrific science fiction even with none of the above elements: if you have read "Farenheit 451" or saw "Brazil" you might know what I mean. And I am just speaking about some of the most famous stories, but there is plenty of even better although unknown out there.

Science fiction is actually rather simple, definitely a lot more than writing an accurate historical novel. The writer is the god of its own world: he makes the rules, he creates the universe. But once a god states some rules, the universe has no other way to develop besides following them: that's why we call it SCIENCE fiction and not just fiction.

The funny thing about it, is that in Doctor Who aliens can fart, like it or not. On the contrary in this show there is no place for "The day of the Doctor": you can film it in 4D or 5D and have Robert De Niro as the Doctor for what it matters.

Moffat is an extremely talented writer, he is just not able to write science fiction, or at least not anymore. The time has come for his fans to accept it. He is obsessed with the time paradox and everything I saw in the last 3 seasons (and after this episode for the whole time) was a huge paradox, but not for real science (where the whole idea of the show is obviously a paradox), for the Doctor's universe.

In a little more than one hour of a tedious and overly indulgent episode, he changed completely the main character, his history and his future. Everything you have seen so far is a lie: his struggle, his morality, his pain, his dark side, allt hos things that among everything created the need of a companion in the first place. The Doctor is now the purest hero you can imagine. He will always save the day and he always did, he never made mistakes and he never will and you know why? Because this show ceased to be one of the best science fiction long term story ever created with this episode. And I am really really sorry, but I hate to be fooled.

Do you like biased reviews? Because if you give me Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling playing mother and daughter is the way to get a biased review from me.

Victorian Yorkshire, humor, horror. Well not as much horror as I was expecting: disappointing. The rocket at the end was a great idea but it made me think: why there isn't some serious steam punk when the Doctor goes back to the Victorian age?

My impression is that Mark Gatiss modeled this filler around his guest stars: Gatiss was actually playing "The recruiter officer" on stage alongside Stirling. But even just watching the episode you'll find it out by yourself in no time: Clara is basically invisible while the Doctor says and does a bunch of useless thing. It's an hazard to propose a script like this since 50% of its success or its failure depends on the guest stars level: in "Blink" Carey Mulligan did a great job on a excellent story, while in here the Rigg ladies saved the day working on a decent but not sparkling script. Brendan Patrick deserves a special mention too.

After 2 seasons and half something is happening in Moffat's vision of The Doctor. I was expecting a lot so I was disappointed beyond imagination, but finally Mark Gatiss gave me some hope.

Some time ago I wrote here that there tons of sci-fi books, movies etc. that it's nearly impossible to write down something completely new. Here there's some of the Old Doctor Who such as the Ice Warriors (which is certainly appealing also for the new generation of fans), some "The Hunt for Red October" and some "Alien". There are probably a hundred other well known stories cited here and I am certainly not mad with the writer for that: one thing is citing, which is what Gatiss does here, another completely different story is copying.

Some action, some logic (or a bit of common sense, call as you like it, I just know I missed it for a long time), some humor: finally a honest and dedicated attempt to write good sci-fi.

The episode itself deserved a 7.5/10, but when you can manage to have Warner and Cuunningham together you easily get more.

While watching this episode I was like "wow" and then "oh no" every 1-2 minutes. There are really some great things, some Doctor Who stuff that I will always love and some others that are not working at all. One of them is Matt Smith. OK, the lines are not amazing, but what if there was Tennant there? I like Matt Smith, I really do, I think he actually saved the day most of the times since he started, but here he's simply not believable. On the other side Jenna Coleman does a good job, her acting is not terrific, but after Karen Gillan she seems Meryl Streep. The story is not bad (still I did not really understand the singing purpose besides making a musical): I got the impression they're finally looking back into the good old days of Nu Doctor Who in order to catch the audience again. Following this path it's easy to make bad copies (as for the previous episode) but some mistakes are needed if they want to succeed and I hope they do 'cause I still love this show.

"The idiot's lantern" anyone? The idea it's exactly the same, while here we have the wi-fi and there the new coming television. That time Mark Gatiss wrote a nice and delicate story about a special year in UK. But in this episode, besides a good direction and, finally, a decent actress, I see the same old problems. Moffat makes complicated plot for no reason at all, and in the end he finds himself in a rush. Timing is, ironically, Moffat problem since he took control of the show.

The episode is enjoyable though. It's also largely forgettable. This season splitting doesn't seem a great idea and perhaps miss Coleman deserves better scripts.

I was really disappointed by Moffat/Smith version of Doctor Who, but I finally found this episode entertaining and not completely senseless as the previous ones. The new companion introduction is almost brilliant, I'm amazed.

Now, the bad things. I believe that if you cannot manage decent visual effects you should partially give up on the script, in my opinion this was the case. I always enjoy Sir Ian McKellen, I don't know what actually happened, but if I had the chance to have him in my show I wouldn't just use half of him (his voice). I see there are still some problems in the script, mostly time problems (which is ironic). Some things are rushed, some others tend to be extremely boring, this affects especially the funny side: it's really easy to fall from "funny" to "stupid" and lately it happened a lot.

I gave a 7/10 because I see signs of an improvement, the willing to be fresh without destroying the whole show logic, but the episode itself it 's far from excellence.

Possibly this is the worst episode ever. They already have been during WWII (Germany bombing UK, great two part story, where's that Moffat? In a cupboard?), why do it again? I tell you why: 'cause it's so easy fantasizing on Hitler's death that someone made a whole movie on this idea and it was a masterpiece.

But here no one kills Hitler, they just lock him in a cupboard in the beginning of the episode. Instead we meet the Teselecta, something like "Fantastic Voyage" but with the quality leve of Transformers: terrible.

And obviously here it comes: River Song who doesn't know she is River Song 'cause at first she is Mels. Who's Mels? A girl that Rory and Amy know since they were children but the authors forgot to tell us before. Why? Plot twist? No, they just didn't plan the whole season and have to fill all the crates of their narration: amateurs.

Mels turns out to be their daughter and dies but since her parents had sex in the Tardis she can regenerate into our beloved River Song. Additionally we find out that Amy named her daughter after her daughter, what a coincidence. In a extremely hilarious Futurama episode, Fry is his own grandfather. That's how a clever, funny author writes about time paradoxes, Moffat uses them 'cause he doesn't know what to do next.

The Doctor almost got killed by Melody Pond / River Song, but Amy shows to her daughter who she'll become (what does River Song says? "SPOILERS!") and after years of training and brainwashing in order to kill the Doctor, she suddenly decides she loves him forever and ever and sacrifices all her future regenerations saving his life. Pathetic.

There's another thing that I don't understand. The Doctor sees the date of his death and he doesn't say a word about it. But didn't Amy already told him in "The almost people" she saw him die in his future? So what's the point of keeping the secret?

A complete disaster.

Can you imagine a better opening for a mystery? New York in the '30s, you cannot go wrong ...or can you? Yes.

For instance you can write a golden episode such as "Blink" where, obviously, people cannot meet the older or younger versions of themselves, 'cause you know, in Doctor Who this is one of the few rules. Then, a few years later, you use again the weeping angels (it's the third time and I'm afraid they're not the Daleks) and in the first 5 minutes Mr. Garner speaks to himself, why?

OK, fine, small mistake, now it gets better... no it doesn't: River Song ladies and gentlemen! Tell me this is the very last time.

One more thing about the messed Moffat's logic: Amy cannot read River's book but the Doctor in "Blink" knew what to say in the DVDs because he had the script from the future. Am I missing something?

Rory dies, as usual, 2 or 3 times and finally Amy too. The two of them were not so memorable as companions, they didn't have many decent plots, though, in any case their farewell is not even close to the previous ones. Honestly, I was almost relieved.

I'm really disappointed by the Matt Smith era, I wasn't that crazy for Russel T Davies and I thought with Moffat in charge there was a chance for an improvement from "really good show" to "excellent". Until now it wasn't definitely the case.

Mark Williams is a fine actor, but his character, Brian Williams, makes me remember Wilfred Mott (Donna Noble's grandfather) and how I'm missing season 4. During the first part of "The power of three" the Doctor stays at Amy and Rory's place and he's irritatingly hyperactive. Why? Was it supposed to be funny? Fail. Since the season started Rory and Amy left the Doctor at the end of each single episode to enjoy their "normal" life. They both have a job, Amy was a model 2 weeks ago, now she's a journalist (really?) while Rory apparently works more or less 1 day per month. I know it's a sci-fi show but please try to put some logic in it. All the cubes/Shakri idea seems pretty cool, I actually thought it was a two-parts story but no, it ends in a few seconds: silly, I cannot find another word for such a rush.

Do you remember Wild Wild West? Me neither since it was awful. Consequently when I saw the Doctor, Amy and Rory heading to the far west I knew it was going to be terrible.

This episode it's absolutely a mess, I thought season could be an improvement, but I start to be hopeless. The Doctor for some god-knows- reason decides that maybe saving one at the price of a 100 is kinda stupid: this wiseness lasts for about a minute, when Amy basically tells him "there are 20 minutes left, if you let him die now, what are we going to do?". And at this point the marshal dies but we don't care about him, do we?

So the Doctor becomes the marshal, there's a duel between him and Isaac where the Doctor, surprise surprise, uses the sonic screwdriver. Isaac nearly kills every human being in the village but again, who cares? The Doctor makes Jex escape so his executioner can follow him on tons of different planets and maybe shoot someone in the meantime (brilliant plan, ain't it?), but Jex commits suicide, thank God.

I believe there was an attempt to follow the same path of "Midnight" (4x10) but the result here is a disaster: it's boring and predictable as much as "Midnight" was deep and emotional.

8/10 for just one thing: I love the Daleks, you guys can get tired of them, as much as you like, I never will. But why a parliament? They are basically an army of killers in a metallic suit, they EX-TER-MI-NA-TE every inferior species (except for the Doctor, 'cause they're also the kings of procrastination), I can accept everything from them, not a parliament. Too much Star Wars in here! Besides this huge mistake it wasn't a bad episode, the Rory-Amy moments were sweet, but not pathetic. Oswin Oswald story is kinda interesting, I know she's gonna be the Doctor's companion Clara so I'm afraid Moffat has in mind a boring, non-sense, paradoxical plot for her, as he did for River Song. I'll see. It's a good start for the season, I'm genuinely convinced it's hard to get worse after season 5 and 6, hopefully I'm not wrong.

First of all: I know Alex Kingston as an actress since E.R., she's brilliant, why giving her such a stupid character? River Song was astonishing on the first episode (when she meets David Tennant) and I expected a lot from her but already at her second appearance I couldn't bear the "hello sweetie" or whatever she says every single time.

It is not easy to write something worse than "let's kill Hitler", but here we're pretty close! Speaking about River Song, I might have missed something, but when does the Doctor gives her the sonic screwdriver Tennant's use on "Forest of the Dead"? Is it something that happened during the series? Let's go further: the wedding. Is there a reason for that? No, not at all. What did the Doctor told her? Apparently not his name, but on "Silence in the library" she says something to the Doctor in order to make him trust her and apparently it's his name. So now it's not? As others have already said: Rory and Amy had a baby, she gave birth in a dramatic circumstance, then the baby got kidnapped but they're absolutely fine. Plus they meet they're daughter when she's older (older than them) and they're, again, absolutely fine. I got it, they're time traveler now, but meeting your daughter from the future should be quite a shock or not? I loved "Blink" but it was a borderline episode, where time paradoxes where in control, here there are too many and there's no internal logic in the show to explain them. "Amy you had a time crack in your wall..." no she didn't since the Doctor reboot the Universe but at the same time she did. Apparently she has double memories (the Doctor dies and the Doctor doesn't die, for instance) but her head is cool with that, while Donna Noble's brain could explode 'cause she became something like a physicist or a an engineer. Really? Last but not least: a parallel universe. In my opinion there's something wrong with this idea: you cannot say it's not so easy to jump between universes and then when you need a parallel universe to develop the story you just say "something huge is happening, so it must be like this". To me it just means that you don't know how to end your story dear Moffat.

What's positive in this episode? Acting, most of all.

Thinking about both seasons 5 and 6 (almost) this average episode - a typical filler before the climax - looks like a really good one. The Doctor meets Craig, whom is now married and has a son. He'll be a one time Doctor companion (or partner?) while taking care of the child: the basic idea of the whole misunderstanding of the Doctor and Craig as a gay couple with a child made me smile, but... we had Jack Harkness on board and here the Doctor doesn't realize anything at all, seriously?

Now the worst part: the Cybermen. I am expecting a mall invaded by mannequins, not by the Cybermen, what's next, Dalek's at McDonald's? I guess this is supposed to be one of the funny parts, but, in my opinion, it doesn't work at all, it is actually the worst idea of the whole episode.

All told an enjoyable episode, a reasonable filler which makes me think there's still a little hope for Doctor Who.

First: John Rimm is good but not brilliant, he's an average actor who did his job, I'm sure he's better in other productions. Here, I said it. The Master is a boring psychopath who unfortunately will come back later in the show with even a worse plot. He lost all his charm in "Utopia" where prof. Yana / Dereck Jacobi disappeared to start all this Master- non-sense.

Doctor Who is not always a show with original ideas, we had such a massive science fiction production that is barely impossible not stealing from another book or movie, but in any case I was extremely disappointed by the banality of the "evil Time Lord" idea. Being honest I would have preferred another Dalek invasion.

I appreciate the fact that one could find a hint in each episode without being bored by ultra mysterious plots or having to accept something huge (as the "humanization" of a time lord or the Saxon existence) in 10 second on the last episode: this means that the whole season has its own logic. With some holes, yes, but still good science fiction.

Martha Jones deserved a completely different role in the story: her walking-around-the-Earth in order to make people praise and worship the Doctor was one of the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen on TV. I wasn't sure she could "replace" Rose Tyler, but step by step she almost did: she showed us she's clever, brave and has a sense of humor (I still believe "Gridlock" is one of the best episodes of all times and she's splendid there)...and here, in the season finale, she's used as an undercover prophet of the Doctor religion? Really??

This is exactly how to ruin a decent season.

I really loved the script, and it might be the first time in season 6, but Karen Gillan didn't keep the episode at the emotional level where it belongs. Talking about new doctor who, I'm a big fan of Donna Noble / Catherine Tate, I was surprised by Billie Piper and in the end I really enjoyed Martha Jones / Freema Agyeman. Karen Gillan is a beautiful woman, with the kind of beauty that makes you like her and think she's a funny mate: she's some material to work with, but she doesn't. As simple as it is. She didn't had many good scripts, this was one of that and she missed it, especially on the second part. Too bad.

I must say something about how the season is going on, because there's something Moffat (whom I adored as many of us with "Blink" and "The girl in the fireplace") needs to understand, or to remember. Science fiction is not science. In science fiction you can travel through the time line, in the real world probably not, for a long long time. And this is perfectly fine, but when you write science fiction you need to state some rules (your own rules of course) and respect them no matter what. Asimov stated the robot laws and there isn't a single robot in Asimov's literary universe who isn't bound to those rules. The Doctor of Moffat's era makes people see and speak with the older or younger versions of themselves, not mentioning the awful season 5 finale, where the Doctor goes back and forth and speaks to himself. When this kind of thing happens more than once I call it rubbish.