See my spoiler-free review of the season here, but this review is full of spoilers. Proceed at your own Risk!
Season Overview:
The fifth season of the revived Dr. Who is also the first season for Moffat as showrunner and Matt Smith as the Doctor. It has a different feel to it and many improvements, but there were some disappointments. I didn't connect with the companion Amy Pond at all, and overall arc of the season was a little less spectacular than I had imagined with Moffat at the helm. Also, I didn't say this in spoiler-free review, but I will say it now: the new theme song is annoying and unnecessary. With all the other changes Moffat could have at least let us keep the theme song we were used to ... >.>
Episode 1: The Eleventh Hour
This episode was a great introduction to Matt Smith and Amy Pond. I only wish that Amy had stayed 7, perhaps then she wouldn't have turned into a big Mary Sue. The moment I saw her in that tiny skirt (she wears the same one ALL SEASON!) I knew things were not going to be good on the characterization front. But as a child, she was great, and most of this episode focused on the regeneration effects which were good. The plot was good, a great one for a season opener, and all the time jumps indicated, for me, that this was going to be a good season. My regrets for this episode are the new theme song, the new TARDIS and why, why, why did Matt Smith have to utter the words timey wimey? *shudder* That aside, though, this was still the second best episode of the season.
Episode 2:The Beast Below
I don't think many people liked this episode, but in my opinion it was a great one. There was a mystery for the Dcotor and Amy to uncover and I liked how the "beast" plotline was used to reveal things about the Doctor and do a bit of characterization for him. Those plastic clown things were, you must admit, a little terrifying.
Episode 3: Victory of the Daleks
Do we really need Daleks again? In power rangers colors? Moffat should know that people are sick of the Daleks by now and leave them be. It wasn't a terrible episode, it was decent overall, but I can't look at it with an objective eye because I really hate how the Daleks have been overused.
Episode 4: The Time of Angels and Episode 5: Flesh and Stone
The Angels should have stayed in Blink. It was a perfect episode and to be honest, I did not want to see them again. That said, this story was good. Moffat changed the Angels a bit when he brought them back creating some interesting tension and some great new stories. Why is it, then, that I never felt even close to the same fear for Amy and the other characters as I did for Sally Sparrow in Blink? Probably, I was too distracted by River Song's annoying quips. If Amy Pond is a Mary Sue then I'm not sure where that leaves River Song. If we'd been introduced to her the normal way then possibly she wouldn't be this annoying, but seeing her again and again so she can tell the Doctor that he's not supposed to have met her yet and so that she can fly the TARDIS better than him, and so no and so forth is just frustrating.
However, like I said, it's a good story with some interesting moments.
Episode 6: The Vampires of Venice
This episode was again, decent and not bad for an obviously filler episode. When Matt Smith faced the main villain of the episode I kind of missed Tennant, but overall it was good. It has just occurred to me and I don't know why I never thought of this before, that Matt Smith's doctor is like a cross between the Tenth Doctor and Jack Sparrow. (One that, unfortunately, isn't as effective as either). But yes, Vampires who turn out to be aliens, Venice, fish, Narcissa Malfoy as the main fish lady, it works just fine for a one-off episode.
Episode 7: Amy's Choice
This Episode worked well and had some great character moments for Rory and Amy. I wish that dream guy would have showed up again at the end, but I think that with everything else that was going on in the finale this would probably have been a step too far.
Episode 8: The Hungry Earth and Episode 9: Cold Blood
This is an outstanding episode! Excellent characters, great characterization, and it gives us what this season has so far failed to give us, people who are shocked and puzzled and reacting in a normal human way to the Doctor. Particularly good was this episode's commentary on human nature, on war and diplomacy, and the wonderful stalemate at the end which opens up the way for a future episode to further explore/continue the story. Best story of the Season!
Episode 10: Vincent and the Doctor
Another outstanding episode. It focused more on Vincent than the Doctor or Amy which was a nice change and the ending was great because it showed that the Doctor can't just go fix everything. I liked it, even the sappy/emotional scene at the Museum. I also loved Bill Nighy's expression when he thought for a moment, that it might be Vincent and then shook his head and moved on. Excellent stuff.
Episode 11: The Lodger
This is the weakest episode of the season. It's not terrible, just weak. For me it was ok until the part where the Doctor did the head-bang thing. After that, it just degraded into something that resembled a really badly written fanfiction where there's an original character that knows everything there is to know about the main characters, etc, etc.
Episode 12: The Pandorica Opens and Episode 13: The Big Bang
I wanted to like this story. There were so many reasons to like it, but overall most of it just didn't make any sense. It wasn't contained enough to really make the time-jumps work and there plot holes, such as all of time being erased, but Amy still being around. What?
This brings me back to what I said about the Season 3 finale. Plot works when the audience is allowed to figure things out along with the character, and to sometimes be one tiny step ahead. This tale was so full of random time-jumps that it just ended up not making sense. I would try to follow one strand and see what the changes based on it would be but then it would immediately throw in another change and bring me back to square one.
If you don't think about it too much, however, the finale works. It resolved the crack in time arc and gives Rory something interesting to do (Great acting by the way, from Arthur Darvill). It was certainly better than the nonsensical Season 3 finale (I will never stop complaining about that, btw). I also thought the idea of the pandorica being a prison/trap for the Doctor was an excellent one which could have been better used. But was it up to Moffat's standard? Unfortunately, no.
Christmas Special: A Christmas Carol
I liked this episode mainly because it was much better than the two part finale so it helped to lessen the disappointment. It was also really good in its own right. It showed how time travel really should be written. Excellent story as the Doctor tries to go back so he can change one man's life and make him care enough to save people's lives. It played really well with the time being rewritten thing and provided some excellent emotional scenes. My only qualm was the scene where the Doctor showed the kid his future. I feel like too much time was spent with the kid running around with his future self and that can't be good. The world-building for the planet was very cool. It's an outstanding episode.
Overall, this was a good season with strong episodes and even the worst of it didn't go as wrong as some of Davies' stories did in the past.
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