Foreign Perspectives

Although one episode it seemed almost like an entire series packed into a one hour episode.

To kick off there’s the now typical fairly extended regeneration issues which run through most of the episode. This is used to introduce new aspects of both the Doctor and the TARDIS. This time around we have the changed tastebuds and settling down of the bones and ligaments of the Doctor. For the TARDIS there’s the mention of a swimming pool and library plus more of an emphasis on the regeneration capabilities of the TARDIS itself (don’t forget that it’s a living being). One wonders how many regenerations the TARDIS itself has.

In amongst that there’s the introduction of Amy first as a child, then as an adult in the main segment of this episode and finally we meet her the day before her wedding (which looks none too likely to happen). Meeting Amy as a child gives us the token “childrens’ entertainment” tagging whilst the majority of the episode is more clearly aimed at an older audience. For this episode there seems to have been an attempt to have something for every potential fan past, present or future which contributed to the “all over the place” feel that the episode had.

Will we come back to Amy’s family in the same way that Martha’s family popped up now and again? That could be difficult as the Doctor picked up Amy the day before her wedding so unless that’s off there doesn’t seem much chance of returning to the village or family but who knows at this point?

The new TARDIS control room retains it’s typical mix of ancient and modern devices but overall not wildly different from the previous version at first glance. Monster-wise the clips at the end of the episode didn’t turn up anything notably new but then the new is harder to pick out. There were a lot of clips of the old though.

Worth watching but overall it had little focus.