The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe

From DWM #443. Fact fans – I first saw this story, sat in the office where I work, just as the Christmas edition of our magazine (not DWM) was going to press. So I felt very festive indeed.

I saw it again at the BBC press launch, which was held at Television Centre. We journalists filed into a studio alongside kids – kids! – to be regaled with a silly warm-up man, the episode itself and then a Q&A in which kids – kids! – asked most of the questions. As we stood up to leave, grumping about the lack of free drinks (we’re monsters), a curtain rose  revealing, on stage, a TARDIS stood in a winter wonderland… and a bar. It was a Christmas miracle.

After Image…

And finally from DWM #440, an ‘And Finally’ on the series. I’d asked Tom Spilsbury if I could pop in some sort of afterword, in part to make sure we weren’t ending on a bit of a damp  note (my previous review) but also because unlike any other run of the show since it returned, the season needed additional consideration as a whole. 

The Wedding of River Song

Here we are – the final episode of the sixth series, and my review from DWM #440, one I found particularly difficult to write. A tricky thing, balancing out my disappointments with the finale, and all the things I liked about it. Did I succeed? Dunno. Maybe you can tell me. 

But end-of-season affairs always feel heightened – and not just in terms of the size of the plot. They’re also burdened with the expectation of being, well, better than average. That made it feel all the more cruel to pick out the bits I didn’t like so much.

Let’s Kill Hitler

This is from DWM #439, and is probably one of the least effusive reviews of Let’s Kill Hitler that’s out there. Should that matter? It’s tempting to make something of it, certainly. To use it to trumpet the magazine’s independence and freedom to criticise. But then I guess that can lead you up a dark alley, becoming overly negative in your writing simply to deflect any accusation of toadying. That would be stupid. So, hopefully, I haven’t ever done that. And I always end each piece on a positive note.

But, yes, LKH didn’t thrill me as much as what was to follow. (See? Positive note.)

A Good Man Goes to War

I wrote previously about the fact that this year I knew how my reviews were going to be sequenced in the magazine. And that was helpful, cos I was aware my piece on A Good Man Goes to War (which I was confident I was going to enjoy) was to be published in the same issue – DWM #436 – as my rather downbeat remarks about The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People. One would hopefully counterbalance the other, plus we would end on a positive note. Which, broadly, I think is how it should be.

In addition, I specifically wrote the reviews to be companion pieces, both opening with a similar gambit. Does that add any value? I dunno. Oh and note, I use a list below. Another attempt to break up the big chunks of text.

The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

I think the excellent Dave Owen might have reviewed two consecutive years of the TV series for DWM, but few have. So I was “surprised and delighted” to return to write about the 2011 run. I don’t kid myself about the reasons for that, though. My day job means I have good access to preview copies, which in turn means it’s easier for me to supply reviews that meet the magazine’s deadlines.

And so, from DWM #434.

A Christmas Carol

From DWM #430, this was written during a bout of ‘flu. A fuzzy head, and no particularly clear opinion of what I thought of the story made it feel like I was stumbling through a blizzard.

But there was a deadline to be met, and that, thankfully, gave me a little clarity. Or at least something to head towards. Looking back at it now, I realise I use a device (reporting upon the actual press screening) which crops again in another DWM review I submitted recently, as an effort to contextualise my slight ambivalence.

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang

Here endeth the first series of Matt Smith’s time in the TARDIS. And my first sustained stint reviewing televised Doctor Who. Always one for a spot of self referential nonsense, this piece contains a few callbacks to my summary of The Eleventh Hour. No-one ever commented.

I first watched The Pandorica Opens in the office of Premier PR – the show’s publicists. (Preview discs were not being sent out for the finale.) I was in the company of fellow journalists from TV listings magazines. As I left, one asked me, “Was that good Doctor Who?” It was.

This is from DWM #424.

The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone

By the time I was writing about this story, I was feeling more conscious of packing ‘added value’ into these reviews. My thinking was that, although I was probably  among the first Doctor Who fans to see the tales (courtesy of preview DVDs), my reviews were the last to be read, popping onto the newsagent’s shelves weeks after everyone’s dissected them online. So, I felt they needed  an additional element, in the hope that would help them remain worth reading. A gimmick, really.

From DWM #422, this one is full of  business. It sports a seemingly superfluous opening para, which is paid-off by a call back at the end. An old cheat. It’s superficially impressive, and gives the impression the whole thing’s been terribly well thought-out. Try it! I also covertly threaded a countdown device into the text (riffing off that bit in part two, when Amy does the same) and marked the relevant words in red for the benefit of Tom and Peter at DWM, so they could be assured these weird mispellings weren’t just typos. I’ve done that here too.

I was well-pleased with the final thing. Less so upon re-reading it now. You just kind of want it to get on with the job in hand. At the time of writing this blurb, I’m about to review ‘A Good Man Goes to War’, and I’m far more relaxed about differentiating my reviews with others online, even though this year, Den of Geek, Tachyon TV and SFX are publishing pieces both before and after stories air. Thing is, I hadn’t realised the implicit added value I already had: I’m lucky in that my reviews appear in DWM, the galaxy’s greatest mag. (See how, even here, I call back to my first line?)

The Beast Below

From DWM #421. A tough piece to write, really, because although I’d quite enjoyed this story, I hadn’t felt especially moved by it. The tone was uncertain, and it never quite coalesced. My hesitancy probably explains why I opted for an ‘added value’ opener, here.