Good evening everybody! This is Aifos coming to you alive from a computer room! Yes, don't worry, I am no longer sitting outside that blue box, instead I have wired up several cameras to keep constant watch on it and am now sitting in a dark room 24/7, watching it to make sure nothing happens! So, as you may know, I've recently been watching Doctor Who, and now I've just wrapped up Matt Smith! And, if I were to describe Smith's run in a word, it would be... Consistent. As in, episode quality. I enjoyed most any given episode just as much as any other given episode. You might think that's good, but it's actually a bit of a double edged sword. We didn't get the low lows of Tennant's era, like New Earth, but we also didn't get the high highs, like Turn Left. Everything was good, which means nothing was bad, but also means nothing was spectacular. Smith's Doctor himself was good fun, I enjoyed most of his silly antics. He still keeps the core of the Doctor's character as seen in Eccleston and Tennant there, but with a bunch of goofy stuff added in like how bowties are cool. It was a little shaky at first, where him saying his goofy stuff felt like it was thrown in at random (like early on where he just says "Wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey" for no reason) but as the show progressed it started to feel a lot more natural. I will say, while Smith's run was very good at handling individual episodes, it did fall a little flat when it came to overarching plots. The cracks in time was a fun little premise, and the idea of the TARDIS exploding causing ripples through all of time is good fun, I liked it. The twist with the Pandorica not actually holding anything, but instead being a prison made for the Doctor was really clever... [i]Buuut[/i], the idea of all of the Doctor's enemies gathering together to lock him away only for him to break out three seconds later was pretty meh, and while the second big bang is fine, I don't know if I buy the idea that remembering the Doctor is enough to bring him back... I really liked the Silence themselves--they are genuinely terrifying baddies--and the plot twist of River being Melody was good fun... But, this season really had the weakest premise overall, because, like, we know the Doctor isn't going to die at the end, and the idea of just faking the Doctor's death so it *looks* like the bad thing happened when it actually didn't was just as disappointing of a conclusion here as it was in Stein's Gate, which is to say, very. The pacing of this season also felt really off. The reveal that River is Melody is super clever, but we learn it in the same episode Melody's name is introduced leaving us with no time to realize it on our own, and especially with the second reveal that Mels is Melody which happens within 5 minutes of Mels' first appearance... Both of these reveals are cool, but they both could've used a bit more time to cook. I think the third season has the most going for it in terms of the overarching plot. Introducing Trenzelor as the site of the Doctor's death, but not saying that it's our Doctor that dies there was real neat... Until they said it's our Doctor that dies there anyway, and then rewrote time afterwards. Which, like, that's a big theme here, isn't it? Every single season says the Doctor dies, and then turns back and says "No he didn't, actually.". It gets kind of old. This season also really bugged me because the companions weren't sticking around. I got really frustrated with Amy & Rory saying "Actually, we're going home." every. Single. Episode. Like, to the point where it was actually kind of a relief when they were killed off, because I was kind of getting sick of them. Which is crazy to say, because I [i]liked[/i] Amy and Rory. Speaking of, our partners! Amy quickly found her way onto my "characters I like" list when she first pretended to be a police officer, and then later when she released the star whale. She was compassionate and a generally good person, but also willing to fight and take things into her own hands. She's no Martha Jones, mind you, but I liked her well enough. Amy also probably has my favorite quote from Smith's run, being "You took my daughter away from me, and she's all grown up, and she's fine now, but I'll never get to see my baby again." before murdering the eyepatch lady. Like, dang, that was good! I was a bit slower to warm up to Rory, but I think by the end I wound up liking him more than Amy. Between the whole immortal centurion bit, and being quick to accept the Flesh as people, I feel like he always put other folk first, and I really liked that about him. With Martha being my favorite of Tennant's companions, I just like compassionate characters, I suppose... Or medical staff, one of the two. Clara was fine. I didn't dislike her, but it did sort of just feel like she was there. She doesn't stand out among the others aside from her whole "dies over and over again" bit. However, I will say, I liked that we got to see more of Clara's home life than we did with the other companions. This was something I really missed with Smith's run overall compared to Eccleston & Tennant. Despite spending more time with Amy and Rory, I feel like I don't know them as well because we only really saw their TARDIS adventures, not their home lives. And I think that's a shame. We got a little bit more with Clara, but not a lot. As you may recall from my review of Tennant's run, my favorite scene comes from one of those home life bits, so I really do wish they show us more of those in the future. Oh, and I guess River. I don't really like River. I've never really liked bad girl/boy characters. They weren't technically companions in the traditional sense, but the Victorian lizard lady and her group were recurring enough for me to count them, and I really liked those guys. Lizard lady was cool, I'm always in support of LGBTQ+ rep, and Strax was very funny. In any case, I enjoyed Smith's run overall. Show's still going strong, I'd say! As I mentioned, there weren't really any episodes that felt particularly worse or better than the others... With one exception in each category. For episodes that were worse: Vampires of Venice [spoiler]It's a shame I ended up not liking this episode, because it has fish people, and I love fish people! And they're fish people vampires, no less! Honestly, most of the episode was fine, but the goofy fight scene against Fransisca really dragged the entire rest of the episode down. It killed the pacing, and ruined the vibe. If that one scene was gone, the entire episode would have been significantly better.[/spoiler] And my favorite episode: A Christmas Carol [spoiler]When I saw the title, I was admittedly worried it was going to be some lame Christmas Carol rehash, but nah, it was super clever. The entire episode was super sweet, and heartwarming, but with a bittersweet touch on the end that was real nice. It was a nice commentary on, like, generational trauma, where we see how the father's cruel behavior resulted in the son becoming just as cruel as he is, but also at the same time, how genuine love and care can help someone break out of that loop. It was super touching. Pretty sure I cried! This was not only my favorite episode of Smith's, but my favorite Christmas special in general![/spoiler] Of course, there were still other episodes I liked quite a bit: The Beast Below [spoiler]Admittedly, this episode just gets a lot of bonus points for the way it phrased the forget scene. How Amy just found her hand on the button without even realizing what she watched. That alone was enough for me, because that was really cool. The rest of the episode was fine, too. I like how I actually picked up on the water thing as well, well before the show actually told me anything. I do feel like they just kinda glossed over the "feeding the less desirables to the whale" bit, though... Like, they fixed the whole "torturing the whale" bit, but I think they probably should've solved the other problem, too...[/spoiler] The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People [spoiler]Probably my favorite episode besides A Christmas Carol. As I mentioned with Tennant, I really enjoy when the big bad threat doesn't come from a scary monster, but instead comes from the people, and this was one of those episodes. The titular Flesh were indeed kinda scary, but the show establishes pretty quickly that they're just people, exactly like the humans. Rory realizing this right quick is really what catapulted him ahead of Amy on my list of characters I like. I particularly like the bit at the end where the Doctor switched shoes to make Amy realize her prejudice. Good fun... Though, destroying the Flesh Amy at the end did feel a little bit like it was running counter to the rest of the episode's themes, but what'cha gonna do?[/spoiler] The Girl Who Waited [spoiler]I really liked seeing the grouchy old Amy refusing to save her younger self. That was just, like, a real interesting premise. You think she'd love to go and save herself all the misery of what happened, but nah, she refuses to rewrite time. Her conversation at the end with Rory is what really sold it, though. When she tells Rory not to open the door if he wants to save Amy all the pain that she went through, but that if he does open it then she's not going to give up without a fight. We also got to see a darker side of the Doctor which is fun. Don't see that too often.[/spoiler] The Rings of Akhaten [spoiler]I'll be honest, this one is only on here because of the song. The song really heightened the climax, I think, and it was stuck in my head for two days after watching.[/spoiler] Also, the three Doctors should've pushed the button together. That would've been a better ending. But that's all for now, folks! Jambuhbye!