ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
This is a curious sort of Doctor Who story, it is paced in a
really leisurely way – deliberately so – which sets it apart from much of the
frenetic pace of new Who. It also introduces us to one of the figures that
joins old and new Who together, Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), the daughter of our
beloved Brigadier and now head of UNIT.
Amy and Rory are settling into a normal life without the
Doctor. One morning cubes turn up all around the globe, small black cubes, that
just sit there – billions of them, just laying around. Humanity, in its magpie
way, just picks them up and puts them into its houses, its offices, its shops.
The Doctor arrives and is intrigued by the cubes, convinced they are alien, so
he decides to hang around to see what they are and struggles to adjust to
normal human life.
Kate Stewart, head of UNIT, contacts the Doctor and brings
him in to investigate further as UNIT are also convinced the cubes are alien. A
year later humanity has forgotten the cubes and they suddenly activate, they do
a series of seemingly unconnecting things and then shut down again. Some time
later they reactivate and begin counting down slowly. When they reach 0 they
open up and are empty.
However, people around the world suddenly die of cardiac
arrest and the Doctor tracks a signal to a ship in orbit which seems to be run
by the Shakri (Steven Berkoff) who the Doctor remembers being the pest
controllers of the universe who are here to wipe out humanity as universal
vermin. The Doctor reverses the signal from the cubes which blows the Shakri
ship up.
The Doctor is about to leave but Brian, Rory’s father (Mark
Williams) insists he takes Amy and Rory on one last ‘trip of a lifetime’.
When it was first broadcast this felt like a really dull
story, but actually revisiting it the change of pace and the unusual format of
this story is rather engaging. There is some humour in the early bits of the
story, especially when the Doctor tries to fit in with Amy and Rory’s ‘normal’
life. The climax is a bit hurried which is a shame and Steven Berkoff seems
very underused as the Shakri.
It does all get a bit syrupy at times, there’s a particularly
cloying scene with the Doctor and Amy saying how much they miss each other and
later on when they declare that cubed means “the Power of Three” which is just
too twee for words and it must be said derails the story a bit.
All in all though, not bad, different and oddly fascinating
… the slowest invasion ever and the calm before the coming storm.
NEXT UP: THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN
© Text copyright - Raving Loony
Productions and
Andrew J. Müller,
Roy Barton
and Shaun Runham
© Photos and Artwork - Andrew J. Müller
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2022
