It's The Loneliest Number

There is a lot being said about the big reveal of the new Xbox around and about, as well you might expect. Not much of it is exactly positive. But really, there is at least one good thing I think we can all take away from this: 

In these times of financial hardship and economic uncertainty, it's certainly heartening to know that we are not going to buy ANY new consoles for a very long time.

Killing In The Name Of (Fanservice)

You know what I would never have predicted happening on an episode of Doctor Who in a million years? Something so weird, so bizarre, just coming crashing in out of left field and yet being so truly, undeniably brilliant?

THIS.

Seriously. Who could have ever have seen that one coming?

It's A Type Of Goth, Isn't It?

To say that Nightmare In Silver was the episode I've anticipating most would be, in all honesty, a lie. That was Cold War. But to say that it's an episode I've been anticipating with a strange mix of keen interest and vague dread would be fairly spot on.

See, the problem with the Cybermen in the new series is, as I'm fairly sure I've mentioned at least once, that there simply hasn't actually been a really good Cyberman story. There have been a couple of decent stories with Cybermen in, but that's not really the same thing. Indeed, it's quite telling that the best use of them has been as incidental bit parts in episodes like The Pandorica Opens or A Good man Goes To War.

Not to mention the fact that everything's better with Rory.

So it was that I'd been steadily hoping for a really decent Cyberman story for a long, long time. That Neil Gaiman was to be writing this episode was a good sign. That it was going to shoehorn in a pair of irritating child characters was.... less so. It's not so much that I'm against the inclusion of child characters in stories at all. It's more that we already did a pair of siblings who couldn't act for toffee if their lives depended on it back in The Twin Dilemma. And look how well that turned out.

Some days death by embolism really does seem like the best option.

And so it comes as not only a pleasure but a positive relief to report that Nightmare In Silver is actually pretty damn good. 

Renaissance Chair

There are a few things one could say about The Crimson Horror as an episode. You could say it's solid. You could say it's actually quite good. You could EVEN say it's got Galvatron in it. You wouldn't be wrong on any of these counts.

No, really. This totally happened.

But for all the praise one could heap upon the episode it also has to be said that it does, sadly, leave a slightly bitter taste in one's metaphorical brainmouth.

Effects on one's LITERAL brainmouth should, of course, be directed to the correct franchise.

But we'll get into that a bit later. First let's talk about sex with lizards.