The Avengers: Age of Ultron

The movie jumps straight into the action, opening with a full-blown assault on Baron Strucker's Hydra stronghold to recapture Loki's Sceptre. That money shot from the trailer, with the Can-Can Line of Avengers leaping through the snow? That's about five minutes into the film, and the pace is pretty much set from there.

Another scene we saw a while ago was the party scene where everyone tries to pick up Mjolnir. What seemed like a bit of light fun before Ultron revealed himself was actually more important than expected in the grand scheme of things. The one problem with this scene; where are the girls? Pepper Pots and Jane Foster are both conspicuously absent, with some fairly weak excuses from Tony and Thor. Oh well. You can't have everyone I suppose.

The relationship between Widow and Hulk has developed to an interesting level. Natasha is responsible for giving The Hulk his "lullaby", but could there be more than that, or as Bruce says, does she just like to flirt?

Speaking of Black Widow, we get to learn more about her and the Red Room, which adds a touch of tragic depth to her. Hawkeye is also epically good at keeping secrets. Let's just say that farm The Avengers end up at is hiding a BIG secret.

We start to see the cracks between Captain America and Iron Man, as Tony forges ahead with doing what he thinks is necessary to bring about a safe and secure world. Cap, it seems, would rather they do things the old fashioned way. I'm not sure how this will feed in to Civil War, and they seemed rather amicable at the close of the film.

Both Widow's backstory and the impetus for the tension between Cap and Tony come from Scarlet Witch's mind powers. Thor also succumbs, but his vision is more revelatory, and is clearly our link to the Infinity War story.

The other vision I should talk about is the android one. Vision is spectacularly realised and he just looks so cool. His origin is not what some early leaked biography text implied, and is closer to his classic origin. That said, the way he was made has me fearing for his safety come the Infinity War.

Now there were a couple of rumours about this movie that is like to address. First up, that someone will die. This is true. It's not who I was expecting, but it was beautifully heroic. Second, that there was no post-credit scene. This is also true. Of course there is a mid-credit scene, so make sure you stay for that. And what a scene! It was no longer than 15 seconds and contained only five words of dialogue, but man! Never have five words been so loaded with promise since "Star Wars prequel trilogy announced". I'm sure this'll end better though.

Doctor Who: The Caretaker

Clara's two worlds combine as The Doctor does a bit of moonlighting at the Coal Hill School in The Caretaker.

This episode begins with a montage showing Clara struggling to live two lives at once, her "normal" life as a teacher with Danny Pink, and her life adventuring in time and space as The Doctor's Companion. This whole montage draws the parallel of a woman cheating on her partner, and in that it succeeds reasonably well. We get the distinct impression that something's going to give pretty soon.

After The Doctor leaves Clara behind to go "Undercover" She appears to have time to focus on Danny, but naturally The Doctor is going undercover at Coal Hill School as John Smith, the temporary replacement Caretaker. Hilarity ensues.

The Threat of the Skovox Blitzer is fairly minor, which is fine, because The Doctor straight up tells us he can handle it easily. There is no discovery of the threat, as The Doctor already knows about it. There is no investigation, as The Doctor already has a plan, and even when that goes wrong he seems to figure out a fall-back plan with minimal fuss. Sadly, if the majority of screen time doesn't even involve the monster of the week in any way, the focus of this episode becomes Danny's discovery of Clara's life with The Doctor.

This all puts the episode squarely in the category of that I like to call "The Companion Show Featuring The Doctor". In retrospect this has been a bit of a trend throughout the season, particularly in Listen, but so far it's not taken up the majority of an episode. I thought (or hoped) we'd gotten past this issue once Clara stopped being The Most Important Person In The Universe™. Once the mystery of her origin was solved, she could become just another travelling companion for The Doctor. Hopefully the resolution of the Danny situation will reduce the focus on Clara and allow The Doctor more time in the limelight.

The scene with The Doctor mistaking Adrian for Clara's boyfriend was strange and has left me feeling a bit annoyed. There's two ways to take this. One, general arrogance from The Doctor that Clara would want someone who looked like he did, because that means she still wants him; or two, a fairly obscure kind of paternal feeling where The Doctor would only approve of someone who was somehow like him. I'd like to think it was meant to be option two, but something tells me that's not really what they were going for here.

The Doctor's irrational hatred of soldiers outlined in Into The Dalek was clearly designed to work with this episode, but despite this not fitting with established canon (The Doctor has been friends with several soldiers), Danny's response to The Doctor was actually pretty awesome.

Yet again we are treated to a scene in the Nethersphere, but this time Missy seems to have her cranky pants on and is reportedly "too busy" to deal with the poor dead policeman. For the first time since the Promised Land arc began, I am actually intrigued. I still don't really care who Missy is, but my interest is piqued as to why she would be annoyed.


Overall, this is a pretty nothing episode. It does well enough considering it's entire point is to get The Doctor and Danny introduced to each other, it's just I like my light science fiction show about aliens and time travel to focus a bit less on a single character's love life and more on, you know, the aliens and time travel.

Score: 6/10

Doctor Who: Time Heist

Season 8 of Doctor Who continues to showcase the potential for story diversity, as The Doctor and Clara pull a bank job in Time Heist.

This episode was just spot on for me. It really highlights the way Doctor Who can remain solidly rooted in science fiction, whilst at the same time playing off other genres and tropes. This episode uses the classic heist movie formula in the tradition of Ocean's 11, Sneakers or the Australian classic Malcolm.

Things start off quickly, with The Doctor and Clara (and us of course) thrown in the deep end along with a pair of specialists. The memory wipe is a great way of bypassing the discovery phase and getting straight into the action. Sadly I think it went some way to telegraphing the identity of The Architect for me. Not that it really mattered all that much.

On that note, I understand they were setting up The Doctor figuring out who The Architect is, but it just seemed out of place to hear him come out with "I hate him,' with no real motivation behind it. The Architect hadn't done anything specific to harm The Doctor or anyone else. They all heard themselves willingly submit to the memory wipe. It was just out of place.
The entire caper was very enjoyable, and played out with perfect pacing. The only element to the plan that seemed a bit strange was the "exit strategy". I'm unclear how Psi and Saibra managed to return to the planet and insinuate themselves into the guard staff when the place was in lockdown. The thing is, the quality of the rest of the episode allowed me to suspend disbelief at that point.

The Teller was a nicely creepy monster, very alien and clearly threatening. The whole "soup" thing was really cool, and looked creepy enough. I'm not sure detecting random guilt is particularly fool-proof when the punishment is encephalous liquification. There's no real room for appeal after that. The flaw in that method was already highlighted nicely in the Red Dwarf episode Justice. That said, it's their bank, and they can police it as harshly as they want, I suppose.

The budding Clara / Danny relationship took up very little of the episode, but disappointingly, despite all his apparent confusion at Clara's primping at the start, The Doctor ends the episode with the very jealous sounding line of "Beat that for a date." We are confusing the situation again here. If the sentiment is "Why would you go on a date when you can do this?" then I get it, but this phrasing makes it sound like, "I'm better than him, so you should love me."


All up, this was my favorite episode of the season. Solid, entertaining, and oh so cool-looking. I think we have our first perfect score for the new Doctor.

Score: 10/10

Doctor Who: Listen

The Doctor deals with some of his own personal monsters and we learn a bit more about Danny Pink in Listen

We begin with The Doctor proposing a theory that just as nature has produced perfect hunters there may also exist a creature which has evolved to be the perfect hider. He suggests these creatures are the cause of a dream shared by all people where a hand grabs you from under the bed.

Using a telepathic link with Clara to direct the TARDIS, The Doctor hopes to find a point in her life when she had the dream, and therefore discover the creature. Unfortunately, Clara gets distracted by the embarrassing aftermath of her fairly disastrous first date with Danny Pink, and things don't go according to plan.

This was an interesting concept for a story and I think overall it was executed quite well. Initially I felt a bit short-changed after there was no confirmed monster, but it is actually quite a refreshing change. There were several hints that indicate there was no creature at all, with each bit of evidence for it being paired with a rational explanation, but at the same time we just can't be sure.

I think it's a testament to the concept and the writing that there is already heated debated raging online about whether there was or wasn't a creature. I've said it before and I'll likely say it again, Steven Moffat can write. Where he falls down is his insistence on pushing these grand, overarching stories and tying everything together. Which leads into my one real issue with this episode. The connection to Day of the Doctor. It just seemed a bit gratuitous to me.

On a similar note, is Gallifrey not time locked any more? How was the TARDIS able to get to that point in The Doctor's timeline? Perhaps it was just a special quirk of Clara's because she has been spliced throughout The Doctor's timeline, but it feels like they are forgetting some important canon there.

In the end, this whole episode felt like a bit of a nothingness. We got some interesting insights into both The Doctor and Danny Pink, and it was yet again Clara's knack with kids that won the day, but overall it was a much slower pace than we've seen recently with not a great deal of excitement. Not that that's inherently a bad thing, but we maybe need a bit more to hook the audience. And with no definite resolution, we are left without so much a story as a collection of things that happened and some unanswered questions. As I said, not everything needs to be answered, but this kind of felt unfinished.

Score: 6/10

Doctor Who: Robot of Sherwood

Our new Doctor really begins to hit his straps as he takes Clara to meet a legend in Robot of Sherwood.

This episode gets us back to basics, with The Doctor and Clara resolving to simply do a bit of adventuring in time and space. Clara chooses to go and meet Robin Hood, and despite The Doctor's claims that he is nothing but a myth, meet him they do. After a brief duel and a mild innuendo (seriously, I don't think they can help themselves), Robin takes The Doctor and Clara to meet his Merry Men.

What follows is a very condensed retelling of the Robin Hood story as we are introduced to the main villain, the Sheriff of Nottingham, who is swiftly shown to be a nasty piece of work. Then we bounce straight to the archery contest for the golden arrow where things take a sharp turn away from the norm, and The Doctor and Robin take time to get really stuck into a phenomenal comedic double act. It really was very entertaining.

Interestingly it is Clara who gets to take the lead in coaxing out the Villain Monologue and securing a bit of back-story from the Sheriff. It's always good to see the Companion adding practical value rather than just being a warm body to explain things to or as an emotional foil for The Doctor.

The season arc tease was a little less offensive this episode in that Missy herself was blissfully absent, however it still seemed clumsily shoved in. We don't need the arc referenced in every episode. Let's just enjoy a standalone episode for once.

The Doctor works out the Sheriff's plan and why it won't work, revealing a flaw that will prove fatal to half the country. And here's where it falls apart a bit for me. Ignoring the practicalities of The Doctor's solution, I liked that the three of them had to work together to pull it off, and the overall resolution of the episode was nice, especially Robin's words to The Doctor.

Overall, the episode ran a little short, making the whole thing seem a bit rushed. I can forgive The Doctor and Clara happening to materialize right next to Robin, thereby getting things moving quickly, but the Robin Hood legend is so rich that it's always going to be tough to get it into such a short space of time. We move straight from introducing characters to a major point in the legend. Add to this that (amusing as it was) a lot of time was chewed up on the banter between Robin and The Doctor and things just seem a little hurried.

I have to say that I still found this episode to be great fun, and would totally re-watch. I have to give it extra points because my wife actually enjoyed this one, and she's not really a fan at all.

Score: 8/10

Doctor Who: Into the Dalek

Capaldi settles into his version of The Doctor and Clara sets her sights elsewhere as an old enemy returns in Into the Dalek.

Things start with a bang, as we see yet another large scale cold open which shows off the special effects budget. This one worked considerably better than the dinosaur at the start of Deep Breath though, in that it was better integrated into the overall story. We pick up where we left off (sort of) as The Doctor has picked up the coffee Clara demanded at the end of Deep Breath.

From there things are set up solidly as we are introduced to a magic shrink ray and The Doctor gives a nod to the obvious inspiration for this episode, Fantastic Voyage (or was it Inner Space?). Of course I'm seeing a few things in this episode that I've seen before. The Doctor's initial encounter with the titular creature is very reminiscent of Nine's meeting in the Season 1 episode Dalek. Once we get inside the Dalek, we see robotic antibodies again, much like in Season 7's Let's Kill Hitler. The sets were nice though. They seemed somehow realistic and delightfully cheap at the same time.

Things play out as you would expect with miniature people running around inside a cybernetic alien killing machine, culminating in a fairly predictable result once their goal is achieved. The Doctor's little mind-meld took a wonderful turn, playing nicely into the "am I a good man?" theme they seem to be setting up for this season, and was hammered home with one line from Rusty.

One thing I didn't really appreciate was being taken out of the story so abruptly just to wave the whole Missy season arc in my face again. It seems they are going to handle it in a similar way to the Madame Kovarian tease from Season 6. I don't recall the Kovarian tease being quite so jarring though. Generally she peered through the hatch during slower parts of the story. Throwing from a tense climax to the "heaven" just felt wrong. Perhaps that was the point. Either way, I think I like my season arc hints a bit more subtle than this.

We see more of a shift in dynamic between The Doctor and Clara this episode too, which is summed up neatly when she refers to herself as his "carer". That was actually pretty funny, but very telling at the same time. Is she bitter about his apparent aging? And now that The Doctor is off the table, they are setting up some kind of clumsy relationship with Clara's co-worker Danny Pink. And what was with all the sexual innuendo around Danny? It made no sense to me.

But why does The Doctor have a hatred of soldiers now? The Brigadier was a soldier, and The Doctor was all set to call on him in A Good Man Goes to War. I sincerely hope they are not setting up some reason why The Doctor can dislike Danny just so he can appear jealous of Clara. If it plays out more paternally, it would be okay, but even paternal feelings for Clara would feel a bit out of place in the face of the detached alien coldness we've had the past two episodes.

Overall it was a thoroughly entertaining episode, and I think it tops most of what we've had for the past few seasons. I wouldn't call it exactly perfect, but certainly close.

Score: 9/10

Doctor Who: Deep Breath

The Doctor suffers the usual regeneration confusion in the first episode of Peter Capaldi's run, Deep Breath.

Much like previous regeneration episodes of the New Who, we spend most of the time seeing the doctor getting his head around who he is now. He spends much of the first half of the episode being confused and forgetful. At the same time Clara spends the first half of the episode not knowing how to handle The Doctor's change to an older form.

We touch again on the theme of Companion abandonment, both physical and emotional, as Clara comes to terms with The Doctor's wholesale change and later when he runs off, gets a taste of that "what now" feeling we've seen companions deal with before.

It's made clear fairly early on that there will be no hanky-panky with this Doctor, leading to the final scene in which he makes it emphatically clear that he is not Clara's boyfriend. Early on, Vastra lays it down wonderfully, putting Clara, and by proxy certain segments of the audience, in their place.

For all her protestations, much of Clara's issue with The Doctor's regeneration does seem to relate to physical looks, so that whole scene is quite gratifying in many ways. On the other hand, Clara's implication that she's into older blokes could be a worrying indication that we've not seen the end of the Companion puppy love.

Bringing the Clockwork People back was an odd choice and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I always thought more could have been done with them, but this felt a bit ham-fisted. Why did they need to be from a sister ship? In The Girl In The Fireplace it was established that it was the destruction of the mission computer that caused the maintenance droids to start cannibalising the crew. Are we to believe this happened twice? I'd have rather seen this as the same group of droids that had all come through a time window and become trapped.

The dinosaur was a bit of a nothingness though. It served almost no purpose in furthering the story, apart from a very public immolation. I suppose it did bring the Paternoster Gang there, but I suspect a blue box crashing into the middle of Victorian London would probably have done the same thing.

This episode went to great lengths to show the parallels between The Doctor with his multiple regenerations and the Clockwork Man with the constant replacing of its own parts. The broom analogy was a good one, which coincidentally I had seen used only recently as I read Terry Pratchett's I Shall Wear Midnight. I'm not sure if the silver tray scene was taking this too far or not. I think I liked it though. I do worry that this "who am I" business will become a sub-plot that takes up too much of this season.

There are a few choice innuendos between Vastra and Jenny, but nothing excessively crude. I even chuckled at a few points. Sadly, by involving Clara in these, Vastra and Jenny's relationship is somehow marginalised. The cool thing about Vastra and Jenny's relationship was not that is was a cross-species same-sex one, but that it was seemingly strongly monogamous. By showing that Vastra is into other girls too, really ruins what was a lovely duo.

And finally The Doctor thinks to ask the question he should have done in The Bells of Saint John. Who gave Clara his number? This really is all the tease for the season arc that we need. Unfortunately that's not spoon-feeding us enough, so they elected to have an entire epilogue scene introducing Missy, the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere. In a far more tragic turn of events, she refers to The Doctor as her boyfriend. Goddamnit!

And I just need to take a second to comment on the new opening credits. Do. Not. Like. There's a hint of something interesting there, but all the cogs and clocks is just a bit too clichéd for me. There's nothing wrong with the good old time vortex with flying names. It's a classic for a reason.

As nice as it was to see Capaldi take on the mantle of The Doctor (and I think he did it well), this episode was just too riddled with issues to score particularly highly from me.

Score: 6/10

Amazing Spider-Man 2: The Rise of Electro

I went in to The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro with mixed feelings. I was excited because The Amazing Spider-Man was a top-notch flick, and the second instalment was shaping up to be more of the same. However, the same teasers and trailers that had me amped up also created some doubts. Primarily, I was worried about the "too many villains" factor. We'd seen Electro, Rhino and Green Goblin in the marketing materials, and there were some teasers for other Sinister Six villains there for the sharp-eyed trailer viewers. After the disaster that was Spider-Man 3, I feared a mish-mash of villain stories that lost focus and ended up lacking.

Thankfully, these fears were somewhat unfounded. I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but I'll start off with a minor one here. Rhino is hardly in this movie at all. Seriously, I'm not sure why he was even included in marketing material. Total screen time for both his pre and post suited up incarnations was around seven or eight minutes. So in a way, this helped to reduce the overall villain saturation somewhat. The Goblin himself also appeared only late in the film, although with slightly more screen time and a hell of a bigger part to play than Rhino.

The film has a somewhat slower pace than the first one. A large section of the middle of the film is devoted to Peter's reconnection with Harry Osborne and his internal struggle with the vow he made to a dying Captain Stacy at the end of the last film. Peter also spends a fair whack of time investigating more about his father's work. In many ways this instalment makes the last one feel like a giant set up for the (admittedly minor) payoff of finding out what Parker Senior was up to and why he abandoned Peter.

But for all this, the film does at least pretend to be about Electro, which is odd, because he's really nothing more than a pawn in the grand scheme of things here. He starts off quite sympathetic, and they do an okay job of showing his motivation for turning evil, although it does feel like a bit of a cop out when Electro tells Spider-Man, "I just feel so angry" or something similar, as though the power itself is somehow making him act evil. This is far from the only reason given, and the rest of that scene plays out reasonably well as far as falls to evil go. Just a minor quibble.

The interplay between Peter and Gwen is the real star here though. Clearly the real-life romance between Garfield and Stone creates an amazing chemistry that is a delight to watch. You can feel why it's so hard for Peter to keep his vow to stay away from her. And Gwen is no screaming damsel in distress either. She is the mental match of Spidey and helps him out on more than one occasion. Of course, this has dire consequences. I'm sure most people have made the connection between some of what's shown in the trailers and a particular Spider-Man story. I must say I was worried they'd wuss out at the last minute, but gladly (or not) they didn't.

Overall, this movie felt too much like a middle movie. An Empire Strikes Back, if you will. It ties up some loose ends from the first movie, whilst working very hard at setting up the next one (and the other planned spinoffs). I'm not saying it's not entertaining, but it doesn't really stand up on its own, and it's far from being the story of The Rise of Electro.

Just a final word to say, unlike most recent Marvel movies (either licensed or Marvel Studios produced), there was no post-credit sequence. There was a mid-credits interlude showing a short scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past, but hardly worth waiting for. I'm not sure if this will change for the US release, but I was bitterly disappointed about that.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

In The First Avenger, we got a classic WWII adventure with touches of Kelly's Heroes, The Dirty Dozen, The Guns of Navarone and a dozen other classics. In contrast, The Winter Soldier is very solidly a spy thriller with the paranoid vibe of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Manchurian Candidate and other such Cold War era offerings.

The movie opens with more of Cap's struggle to reintegrate into society. This theme is expanded upon as we are reminded you don't have to be frozen for 70 years to have trouble fitting back in. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the trailers that Cap is also struggling to fit in at S.H.I.E.L.D., butting heads with Nick Fury over the nature of their work and the methods they employ.

"That's not freedom. That's fear," argues Cap when presented with an overview of Operation Insight, a S.H.I.E.L.D. plan to neutralize threats before they happen. "Threats to whom?" Is the question we all must ask ourselves when this kind of rhetoric is bandied about, and indeed is the question Cap should have explored more deeply at this point. Not that it really would have helped much.

Black Widow has a decent role in this film too, which really helps to expand her character from the fairly one-dimensional super spy she's been in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers. We get lots of hints at a sordid past, and I may be reading too much into it, but in one of the penultimate scenes she is asked if she is ready for people to learn about her past. That seemed to me like a subtle hint at a possible standalone film. Not sure where they'd go with it, but I'd sure as hell watch it.

Falcon was a great addition to the roster too, and considering the nature of the threat being faced, his skills were invaluable. The friendship between he and Cap seemed quick, but natural. Trust is another big theme in this movie, as you would expect in something so full of intrigue.

The Winter Soldier is introduced superbly in one of the best car chase / fight scenes I've seen in a long time. And just to be clear, I mean car chase and car fight scene. It was great to see Director Fury get out from behind the desk again. The audience gave an audible gasp at The Winter Soldier’s full face reveal, indicating to me there were a lot of new Marvel fans there.

I saw a 3D session, and I'd have to say it didn't help. The only time the 3D really added anything was when Falcon was zooming about the Helicarriers. The rest of the time it was fairly wasted or actually harmed the viewing experience. The fight scenes, especially the close combat stuff (which was all awesomely choreographed) became very blurry and hard to follow due to the sheer speed of most of the moves being employed. In the end, it's up to personal choice, but I'd recommend a 2D session for this reason alone.

The movie ends with some huge changes to the Marvel Shared Universe. Game changing events occur. I'm particularly interested to see how this plays out in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Those guys have been doing a reasonable job so far of integrating into the MSU. Their references to Thor: The Dark World were a nice nod to that film, but this one will certainly be very tricky for them  to pull off.

Overall I'd have to say this is a favourite. Marvel Studios is going from strength to strength with only the occasional slight stumble (Iron Man 3). The Winter Soldier was, for me, up there with The Avengers. A great mix of character development, action, and that iconic Marvel comedy we've come to expect.

We were also treated to a few Easter eggs and teasers along with nice references to other characters that keep us firmly rooted in the MSU as a whole. Bruce Banner's work plays a small part, as does Tony Stark's. We had lots of throwbacks to The First Avenger, including the return of more than one character. There was also a cheeky reference to Doctor Strange. And of course we have a mid-credits sequence prefacing Age of Ultron, and a nice little post credits scene hinting at a possible continuation of the Winter Soldier story.

I could go on more about the minutia of the film, but I'd be spoiling a lot of the good stuff, so I'll just say, watch it ASAP.

As if you weren't going to already.

Matt Smith bows out as The Doctor in this years much awaited Christmas Special, The Time Of The Doctor.

Oh my good God. I'm so glad I didn't watch this immediately, it would have spoiled my Christmas buzz. This was not only a total shambles of a story that packed in a whole bunch of unnecessary sexual innuendo, but it revisited almost every reference from Smith's tenure that annoys me. Ordinarily this is where I would say, "but it was all worth it for the twenty seconds of Peter Capaldi at the end", but seriously, it wasn't.

To start with, the relationship between The Doctor and Clara continues to be confused, with her confirmation she "fancied him" whilst bringing The Doctor in as a fake boyfriend despite him originally getting the wrong end of the stick and pretty much saying he'd be up for the real deal. I must say I am hoping for a dramatic reduction in this sort of thing with Capaldi as Twelve. It's just so boring.

The innuendos fly thick and fast in the opening minutes. I mean, what was the deal with the hologram clothes? The concept of being nude in church is an interesting one, being bare before God and so forth, but with no explanation, and in combination with Tasha Lem's alter-shaped bed, I'm left assuming that it's just there to poke fun at religion by sexualising it.

It's not the first time I've sensed this kind of jab at organised religion in a Moffat story, either. Previous appearances such as The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone and A Good Man Goes To War saw The Church as largely Anglican, and the prominence of openly gay couple, The Fat One and The Thin One was either a reference to the already evolving Anglican Church (female ministers etc) or just a cheap gay joke. With Moffat it's hard to tell. Now we see The Church as being somehow related to a very Catholic sounding Papal Mainframe.

The Doctor and Tasha Lem's sexual banter was so overt that I found myself waiting for the reveal that she was somehow a regenerated River Song. When did The Doctor have the time to develop this kind of long-term sexual relationship with a woman who wasn't River? It clearly wasn't as Eleven, so was Ten putting it about even more than we realised? It was all so unnecessary though. None of it added to the story one iota, and the flash of naked Matt Smith at the start seemed pure fan-service.

Again, we have a case of too many monsters, although it did seem to make more sense as to why they were there than some episodes. I worried when the teaser came out because it was cut in a way that made it seem the whole thing was a set-up, much like the Pandorica plot-line. The teasers also had me face-palming at the return of the Silence, but again, in context they were relevant. I actually liked the idea that they were professional confessors, but after a second thought, It doesn't make much sense because half the point of confession is the act of confession, so even if you are getting some kind of post-hypnotic suggestion of penance, you're losing all the psychological benefits of confession by forgetting that you've actually done it. I was also quite upset for the Sontarins, who seem to have been relegated to comic relief. Don't get me wrong, Strax is a great character and pulls off comic relief well, but to make all Sontarins appear inept and stupid is a real shame.

The episode just seemed a ham-fisted attempt to tie all of Eleven's season arcs into one grand overarching plot. Unfortunately instead of a mind-blowing climax to everything we've seen the past four years, all we got was a self-referential mish-mash with no real direction beyond tying up all of the loose ends. But you know what? Sometimes loose ends are a good thing. Case in point, the only thing that wasn't resolved was the return of Gallifrey. In a way I am looking forward to that being The Doctor's main objective moving forward. I hope it can be left unresolved for a long time, much like the holy scriptures in Monkey.

The whole thing just seemed to drag, and when I wasn't groaning because of some fresh innuendo or the reappearance of those thrice-damned Weeping Angels, I was checking to see how much longer it had to go. By the time we got to see the regeneration, I was over it. Capaldi's final line was a classic though.

I won't be rushing out to watch this one again.

4/10

Southern Bricks

Southern Bricks is one of Australia’s newest LEGO User Groups, or LUGs was officially formed only three months ago, but on the first weekend of November they put on their first public show at Toy Corner in the suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Around 2,000 people visited the store over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of November to view some of the truly epic creations from six different builders from across Adelaide, as well as kits new and old. South Australia has an active LEGO community, but hasn’t had a public face for quite some time. I spoke to Tim Burdon, one of the designers for Southern Bricks, and got the low down on some of the awesome builds on display.

The first thing to grab my attention as I came through the doors was the FJ Holden, a model that rang some rather distinct bells for me. Tim told me that the model is based on an original model built by LEGO for the world’s first LEGO store which opened in Sydney in 1984. Since the store closed in the early 90s, the model has been housed at the Australian National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia, which is where I was remembering it from.

It was at the Museum that Tim took several photos of the original, which he then blew up and used to build his own version brick by brick, counting individual studs for spacing. The next step saw Tim reverse engineer the model into the LEGO Digital Designer program, giving him a record for any future builds. He had to separate it into three different files though, as brick count of approximately 5,500 pieces of LEGO crashed the program! The original version took approximately 3 months to design and build, whilst the version that was on display here took him around 3 solid days. 

The largest piece on display was the truly epic “A Day at the Dionysus” by Tim’s brother Michael Burdon, and was described to me as “a two-year labour of love and hate”. Named for the Greek God Dionysus, patron of the arts, the scene is built from over 50,000 pieces of LEGO and houses over 400 Minifigures, many recognisable from the Star Wars range as well as from multiple series of the collectible Minifigs.
It is Michael’s largest creation to date, and next January he will be taking it to Brickvention 2014 at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. This piece was great fun, with lots of funny little details. It also incorporated the Cuusoo Back to the Future DeLorean and a custom TARDIS for double the time travelling action.

 This castle is, believe it or not, a work in progress. 
The builder has been working on it over several years 
and plans to make it around twice its current size.

 Doctor Jones, meet Captain Solo.
 Captain Solo, Doctor Jones

 Also on display was the 3,152 piece Super Star Destroyer, which was packed up by Tim after the show by (and I hesitate to relive this experience) dropping it prow first onto the ground. Photos of that tragic event are up on Toy Corner’s Facebook page.

I for one had a great time at the show, and my son seemed to have fun too. He especially loved some of the train kits and custom builds.

 Southern Bricks have an active building group of between 15-20 people at the moment, but are hoping to grow as their events get bigger and bigger in 2014. The group will be hosting a LEGO vehicle-based event on the 4th and 5th of January 2014 at the National Motor Museum, with a small display of custom creations as well as a 'Come and Build' area for people to put their LEGO skills to the test. They’re also planning a major LEGO event for later on in 2014. Make sure you like their page on Facebook to stay up to date.