Doctor Who Week: Day 4

Series 4
Favourite episode: Midnight
This episode has to be one of my favourite stories in all of Doctor Who. It shows what a good writer Russell T Davies actually is, and how quickly things can escalate when things go wrong. From the light comedy of the first 10 minutes, to the end of the tour where everyone is deathly silent, the story keeps you hooked right the way through. It also goes to show how you can have an effective monster of the week without even showing what the monster is (not unlike the later Torchwood aliens the 456). Add to this a confined space with no outside views and the episode takes on a rather bleak and hopeless feel, which just adds to the creepy nature of the unknown. Having a monster that you never see but which copies whatever someone says and slowly becomes aware of how to manipulate people is very creepy. As is the copying of everyone until it zones in on the Doctor and slowly starts to take over his mind and starts to speak before he does. The acting is just brilliant throughout, and effectively shows the worst (the willingness to sacrifice everyone for your own survival) and the best of humanity (willingness to sacrifice yourself for the survival of others), and how everyone has a selfish and selfless side. Its what we choose to do that makes us who we are. The fact that no-one even knows the name of stewardess who saved them all, makes her sacrifice even more poignant. The tooing and frowing of the dialogue between The Doctor and Mrs Silvestry is amazing and shows just how many lines they had to both learn to show the "alien" effectively. Its a fantastic episode and deserves to be watched and admired.

Honorable mention: Turn Left/The Stolen Earth/Journeys End and The Silence in the Library/The Forest of the Dead

I can't really bring anything new to the already glowing reviews of the final 3 episodes of Series 4, but will highlight my favourite bits. Turn left is a Dr lite episode that show cases Donna and how a simple change in the direction of her car one day completly causes a new timeline to be created. In this timeline, the Dr dies in the confrontation with the Racnoss on Christmas Day as without Donna there to stop him, he drowns whilst draining the Thames. The whole new universe that is created is a bleak sad future where the Earth is unrpotected due to the death of the Dr and even his ex companions are dead or die heroically. Catherine Tate is marvelous in this episode and brings a sadness to Donna that is sometimes overlooked in favour of her more confrontational/bubbly personality.
The Stolen Earth and Journeys End brilliantly wraps up everything from the series 1 through 4. I will just highlight my likings instead of rambling again:
The return of Rose, Mickey and Jackie. As well as Harriet Jones (former PM)
The showing of Torchwood three and Gwen, Jack and Ianto helping out
The fake regeneration of the Doctor
The return of Davros and Dalek Caan
The uplifting and joyous scene of the Dr and his companions flying the Tardis whilst towing home the Earth
The Meta Crisis Dr and the Dr Donna
Rose finally getting her man.. in a roundabout way ;)
The sad ending with the "death" of Donna and the Dr, now alone.

Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead shows us the first story featuring River Song, who would become more known for travelling with the 11th Dr. The fact that this is her last meeting with the Dr whilst it is his first meeting with River, opens up the possiblity for many a story and nicely shows how one of the Drs companions is actually out of sync with his timeline. The aliens in this story (the vashta nerada), excellently play on people fears of the dark and shadows. And how in every shadow or sunlight, when you see speaks of dust, they are really the vashta nerada waiting to feed. The sacrifice of River to save the Dr is a lovely moment and goes to show how strong a character she is (will become) but also adds an air of mystery to her personality. The fake World with Donna having a family is heartbreaking when she has to leave as everyone is being uploaded back to the library. The last scene where her "husband" in the real World sees her and tries to shout her as she walks off, only to stutter and fail is a tear jerking moment. All in all a good episode and another winner from Mr Moffat :D