Doctor Who Series Five Blitz

If you have not watched any or all of the episodes of Series Five, please note that this post does contain spoilers. If you don’t want the new series spoiled, go watch the episodes and come back. :)

Since receiving the Blu-Ray set of Doctor Who Series Five on Tuesday afternoon, I have just finished watching all thirteen episodes tonight. It took me about half-way through the series for me to warm up to both the new Doctor, though Amelia/Amy Pond broke through partially in the first episode. It also took me up to the final two episodes to like Rory, as it was his persistence towards the end that really made his character shine.

Series Five brings back characters and enemies of the Doctor, like the same way that the last four series have done, including the intriguing River Song, re-born Daleks, and the eerie Weeping Angels from Series Three. That’s nothing compared to what was brought back in the last two episodes of the series: Cybermen, Sontarians, Autons and (indirectly) the Nestene Conscience. Out of all of the buggers that returned in the new series, the Weeping Angels has to take the cake. It’s bad enough they move when they are not being watched (as in, when you blink, so don’t blink, blink and you die…), but now they can take over anything that contains an image of a Weeping Angel.

In one of my Google Buzz posts, I quipped that the idea of the crack being familiar to the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which a failed static warp bubble causes people to disappear from the memories of others (due to the collapsing of the bubble). That is only part of the story behind the crack in time and space that appeared throughout the new series. The crack not only causes people to disappear from all existence, but was used as a foil to tie everything back to Amelia/Amy Pond, akin to the various events were centered around Donna Noble in Series Four.

I definitely look forward to see how River Song plays into the story and evolution of the Doctor in the upcoming series, but I am not looking forward to the wait. I guess I’ll have to figure out what other serials to watch between now and then, including watching the remaining first season episodes of Law & Order: UK and whenever the final episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

P.S.: I am still not a fan of the title sequence for the new series, but the theme used for the title sequence has become one of my favorites. It is quite disappointing that the theme used for the credits is pretty weak without the middle eight and is quite short. Darned BBC mandate for short credit sequences.