Doctor Who: The Power of Three (2012)

Doctor Who is so often about balancing character issues with the exploration of its sci-fi concepts, while at the same time keeping things moving to create a sense of purpose. In this episode it felt that the danger was so slight and its resolution so simple, that it almost wasn't worth bothering. The plot involved strange black cubes suddenly appearing all over the earth, which seemed to do nothing for an entire year before finally bursting into life. A mysterious villain was shown to be behind it but as soon as their expository dialogue was over and done with, the problem was solved in about 5 seconds flat.

Still, this episode wasn't really about the threat to the earth, the premise was more about spending some time looking at the daily lives of the Doctor's companions. I felt it took a bold step in stating that Amy and Rory have been involved with the Doctor for ten years from their point of view (possibly to fulfil a condition from a previous episode where they see their future selves still together ten years in the future). I enjoyed the simple realities of coming back to a fridge full of yoghurt after the Tardis misses its landing by a couple of months. This is something that has been covered before right back when the show was first rebooted but I enjoyed the relative mundanity of the approach here. This set the scene for Amy and Rory reaching a point where they had to decide which life to choose.

The Doctor's frustration at such a non-immediate threat provided lots of amusement and I liked the fact that he did just pop out of the episode while nothing was happening. When Amy confronted him later about running away, his assertion that he was instead running to see things before the fade away seemed like a great summary of the show as a whole. Ever since reading about the concept of 'The Curse of the Traveller' on reddit I keep coming back to applying this to the Doctor and I couldn't help but feel there is also perhaps a mistaken compulsion to his endless travels, that he will never be totally satisfied.

Amy and Rory are also drawn into a brief time travelling distraction for a few weeks/one night. Given that one of their stops appeared to involve Henry VIII, it seemed likely this was the event mentioned last week about Rory leaving his phone charger behind. I'm not sure if the question of whether this series is in chronological order is important (and just what chronological order would be for multiple time travellers) but it gives the whole thing more of a 'Tales from the Tardis' kind of feel, knowing that this series could be jumping around in time.

I've already seen plenty of mixed opinions on this episode, from those who loved the return of U.N.I.T. to those comparing it to the worst excesses of the Russell T. Davies era. Sadly for me I think that its sudden resolution undid any good work built up before that point, rather than being something I could brush aside. It felt more like an episode of Lost, where so many plot elements were abandoned in a manner that suggested they would never be heard of again. Which is a shame as it could have been brave and run with some of the bigger ramifications but instead went with pushing the reset button. I actually found myself thinking about the consequences of the earth suddenly losing a third of its population and the storylines it could generate, so when this was quickly undone it felt like a lack of confidence in their ideas - especially when the final solution should have at least left the survivors with severe brain damage!

This new and terrible enemy really fell down under closer inspection too, leaving seemingly endless plotholes. Why would someone whose powers seemingly surpassed the Doctor's need to create such a bizarre scheme to destroy the human race? Who were the duck faced guys? Why were they kidnapping people? And did the Doctor leave all of the remaining people to die on that ship? Given the huge danger this race would still possess it seemed bizarre to treat them as if they would never be seen again. I couldn't help but think of the clumsy reasoning behind Mass Effect's Reapers and it felt a little like someone wanted to use that idea but forgot that there are much worse threats in the Who universe than the human race.

When it came to the end of the episode, I was a little surprised by Amy and Rory's final decision to continue their travels with the Doctor. Given that it spent most of the episode hinting at the opposite, I'm not sure I totally bought their turnaround - especially given their earlier realisation that it felt good to make plans they intended to keep (while drinking a cup of tea in bed no less, a lovely little touch of grown up married bliss). It also suggests that they are more likely to meet a tragic end, rather than make the decision to leave - if this incarnation of the Doctor will always seek out Amy then it seems logical that one of them has to leave permanently to break their connection. Next weeks episode is already prompting a lot of speculation as to how their journey will end, here's hoping that Amy and Rory get a fitting send off at least.