Doctor Who: Series 3 Overview

Well, it's been over a week since another new Doctor Who series concluded (they seem to pass quite quickly now!). Having seen each episode at least once, here is a brief overview and general opinion (though I hope to go into more detailed analysis later).

Having had his friendship with Rose Tyler cut off by parallel worlds, a less-hyper Doctor meets more mature and accomplished Medical student Martha Jones and so starts a new "era" in the new series. Like the previous two series, little clues have gradually built up to a climatic finale. But whereas Series One felt new and Series Two had a set format with a good structure of episodes that fitted the time of the year it was broadcast, Series Three seemed a bit more confused in its structuring and the tone was darker (during the period of Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks one of my friends said it was getting a bit boring).

Interestingly, due to a week's break, it felt like the series were set to two halves (the "Coming Up" trailer showed an exciting group of episodes).

Despite a structure of varying types of episodes, a lot of them have been very good and have dealt with interesting themes.

The Shakespeare Code looked at the power of words and brought up the subject of science vs. the supernatural.

42 shows show the female captain is willing to try an save her sun-possessed husband (marital faithfulness?)

And then of course, the mid-series two-parter Human Nature/The Family of Blood (perhaps a new Classic?) has the Doctor becoming human (a story that writer Paul Cornell said on Doctor Who: Confidential has being in stories like Superman II and the life of Christ). This particular story has moving and had amazing performances from everyone.

I should also mention Blink, a brilliantly original "Doctor-lite" episode which was indeed scary.

And then of course, there was the finale, which turned out to be of three episodes. I thought Utopia would be a pre-finale episode in which the Doctor saves the human race at the end of the universe. But then Derek Jacobi took a Time Lord fob watch out of his pocket and we have a heart-pounding last few minutes in which we find out what the Face of Boe's "You are not alone" meant (which I had nearly forgotten). There had been rumours that at the end, Derek Jacobi would regenerate into John Simm as the Master, and the hints were certainly there early on (the Sound of Drums, the Professor's face on seeing the TARDIS). But what a performance from Derek. From a nice old man to a transformation into his five minutes as the Doctor's arch enemy (helped by another fantasticly exciting music from Murray Gold).

And then there was the regeneration - into John Simm, who had been announced as playing Prime Minister Harold Saxon, a name that was first discreetly hidden in Series Two (a newspaper heading) but I first noticed in Torchwood and I guessed would be the new "arc word". I was able to watch John as the Master and not think of him as being from Life on Mars.

I'll finish this article later...

Finished college.

I have now finished my two-year Media course and am entering into a gap year before doing a three-year Film Studies course at University. It's been a great two years and I may miss going to college.

To celebrate the two years, my friend and fellow Media student Joe O' Keeffe made this video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1urbnLbDrpQ