Downton Abbey Series 5 Episode 6 Review

Once more at the breakfast table, Edith (Laura Carmichael) receives a telegram which as we know has news about Michael.  His editor will be coming over in person and everyone knows it's just confirming the inevitable, that Michael is dead.  Infact he has been dead for over a year now; as Robert (Hugh Bonneville) tells Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) who's having breakfast in bed and really Robert is like he can't even bear to look at his wife.  He's still reeling over her so called non existent assignation over Bricker.  As she later reminds him, he can come back to their bed otherwise she asks him if he's ever really felt anything or flirted with anyone else.  Yes, very hypocritical of Robert, has he forgotten the incident with the maid, who was in awe over him.

It's as everyone confirmed and Michael was dead, killed at the time of the Beer hall Putsch in Munich in 1923.  Hitler has been arrested but won't serve any time for it.  Edith goes for a walk and Cora asks Robert if she should see her.  As if she needs his permission, she's her mother isn't she.  Mary (Michelle Dockery) is 'up herself' as usual, if I can use that phrase!  She knows what the news will be and yet she just can't force herself to be civil to her sister, cos once again, it's all about her and her own life.  Making comments and putting Edith down again.  How long did it take for her to get over Matthew.

Apparently the staff all hear about the editor coming down and Carson (Jim Carter) says it's bad news otherwise he wouldn't come down in person and would just telephone.  Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) is taking a final look at the cottage and taking Mrs Hughes (Phyliss Logan) with her.  Mrs Hughes asks Carson to come and she realizes it's kind of an olive branch and will put behind the business of the war memorial.  Mrs Patmore doesn't mind if he wants to go.  Having seen the cottage, she finally decides she wants to take it, spruce it up and then live in it herself when she retires.  Giving Carson an idea of his own to buy a property with Mrs Hughes as a business venture and they can rent it out and share the rental.  Mrs Hughes smiles at it, oh just get the two of them together already!

Rose (Lily James) is having Atticus (down for the races and Mary gets a new haircut, is that all. Edith loses it when everyone talks about the race and how Charles (Julian Ovenden) and Gillingham (Tom Cullen) will also be there and Cora suggests how they should come down to stay at Downton. Charles putting his plan into action to get Lane Fox (Catherine Steadman) back together with Gillingham, as she woos him all over again. It's apparent he didn't really want Mary after all and it was just Mary trying to get her own way with another man and 'steal' him away cos she could.  She even says this to Lane Fox on the actual day of the race.  That she can't let him get away too easily!
Isabel (Penelope Wilton) also has an answer for Merton and again she is going to accept him, but she doesn't want to tell the Dowager (Maggie Smith) yet until she can break the news to everyone together.

The Dowager seems to be having problems with her new maid, Denker (Sue Johnston) and Spratt (Jeremy Swift) is completely resentful of her, she wants the laundry done at the main house since it's not the duties of a lady's maid to wash up.  Police inspector Vyner (Louis Hilyer) returns with the sergeant and this time they have questions for Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) though she doesn't know why.  They ask her whether she knows of Bates (Brendan Coyle) travelling to London and if he went or not.  Threatening her that if she refuses to cooperate she will serve out the remainder of her sentence for theft.  Which Mrs Hughes is shocked to hear about.  She had heard something about it, but she couldn't say for sure who went to London or not.  She asks how they know and reply they were sent a letter.  We all know who sent that letter, Thomas (Rob James-Collier)!  Mrs Hughes asks Baxter one question, if Cora knows of the theft and she replies she does.  of course if she was a thief, she could have just lied about it.

Then Thomas has the audacity to ask Baxter for help.  After having another dig at Bates when Anna (Joanne Froggatt) tells him he doesn't look well, telling Bates he's indifferent to him cos he's the same way about him too.  He shows Baxter the abscess on his back and she wants him to see Doctor Clarkson (David Robb).  He tells him to stop injecting himself with saline solution and it's not the 'fix' he's been lead to think will cure his homosexuality.  So in effect he was taken for a fool and Baxter says she won't hold that against him, cos if he put his mind to it, he could achieve anything he wants.  Which is what Daisy (Sophie McShera) is doing.  Though she can't stop doting on Bunting! Molesley (Kevin Doyle) offers to help her with history cos he could have become a teacher but his father couldn't afford to keep up his education, but if he can help her get through, then that'll be good enough.

The Dowager sees Prince Kuragin (Rade Sherbedgia) to tell him about the princess and she finds his quarters rather dingy of course.  He recalls their assignations and she wishes to leave all that in the past.  Not even taking a sip of the tea he made for her.  Her lady's maid is very forward, wonder how she puts up with her.  Edith decides she wants to leave and take Marigold with her, especially since Mrs Drew (Emma Lowndes) refuses to let her see Marigold after the news she received.  Edith also losing it when Atticus (Matt Barber) is at Downton when Mary shows off her new hairstyle, which she got from a hairdresser who isn't even French, oh if only she knew, that'd take her down a peg or two! Ha.  Edith tells Atticus he may as well find out what they're really like now.  Mary not having an ounce of sympathy, but she's not berated for it.  Infact Cora doesn't even see if Edith is okay this time either.

Edith tries to write a letter but she can't put any words to paper.  Though she wants to tell Branson (Allen Leech) she can't do that either even if he would understand her.  Just asking him to say goodbye for her and for them not to change him.  Bates finds Mary's book at the house after Anna's forgotten her button box there and as said by me, he gets the wrong end of the stick and thinks she doesn't want his children cos she believes him to be a murderer.  She thinks she means his wife, but he means Green.  He knew it was him who attacked her, especially when Green mentioned going down to the kitchen.  He bought a ticket to London from York, but didn't go.  He knew he'd kill Green and he didn't want to be hanged and to let Anna go through that.  Anna recalls the coat she gave away for the Russians and the ticket inside the pocket, cos as I said last time, you really give things away without checking the pockets (well on TV you do).  She reminds Mrs  Hughes of this and she threw the ticket away when she found it.  It would have proven he didn't go to London since it was whole and not in two halves, as it would've been if he had travelled there.  Anna regretting the only thing that could prove Bates innocent and she gave it away.

The family return to find Edith is gone and the Dowager has an idea where she could be.  Edith shows Mrs Drew the birth certificate withe her name on it even if its' in French, which she rips up. but she has other copies.  Taking Marigold to London, she's going to celebrate with champagne and ice cream.  The Dowager arrives too late and Drew (Andrew Scarborough) doesn't know where she's gone.  Well, someone's going to catch up to her. She can afford to got it alone as she's been left the publishing business.

Oh just when it was looking like Anna could have killed Green, it's not turning out that way.  That would've been a good story.  Also looks like it was probably an accident in the end, or not, as I keep mentioning.  This series has been a bit of a let down in terms of reception and already turning to plots covered in the previous series. Like Robert and his affections for the hired help and berating Cora now for being completely innocent of Bricker's affections towards her.

Doctor Who 8.10 "In the Forest of the Night" Review

                                      
A girl walks though a forest and finally comes to the TARDIS, as she knocks on the door, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) opens it and she tells him she needs help, she needs a Doctor.  He brings her in and finds that they are in London and the forest has grown overnight.  Elsewhere the school party begins to get ready to leave and neither Clara (Jenna Coleman) nor Danny (Sam Anderson) have realized that the girl is missing. They open the door of the museum but it's surrounded by trees. Planet earth no longer is a mass of countries and sea but is all green.  One ep for the environmentalists this one.

The Doctor finds he's at Trafalgar Square and the lion is wooden so there's no way the Sonic will work.  Clara is called by the Doctor and tells her about the girl and she's with him.  Her name is Maebh (Abigal Eames) and she tells him to look after her.  His response, "I'm a Doctor not a childminder."  Though it's a bit funny he doesn't ask her who told her to find the Doctor, when he first tells him she needs the Doctor.  The school party finally comes across the TARDIS and enter it. Being children, their hands would go everywhere and it's the Doctor who has to control them, not Clara or Danny, so much for being teachers.  Surprising a PE, I mean, Maths teacher would accompany them to the museum, wouldn't it have been a history teacher.  Well that's what happened when we were at school.  Anyway, that aside and the fact that Clara was meant to call their parents but didn't cos she was side tracked by the Doctor, she thought she was getting one up on him by telling him how London is covered in trees.  He already knew.  Danny finds the exercise books in the TARDIS so knows that Clara has been seeing him and keeping it from Danny.  Maebh's book had a drawing of the sun and trees.

They search for Maebh and the Doctor thinks she's probably leaving breadcrumbs like Hansel and Gretel, seems he's been reading again.  Clara adding they'll find her in a house made of gingerbread with a cannibal witch.  Then makes a comment about how these are the stories that would give them nightmares in the night. Er, I didn't get any such nightmares from reading fairytales and the like, did anyone?  Meanwhile there's news reports of how the tress have affected other countries and the government Cobra committee has been set up to 'fight' the trees.  Their solution is to burn a path through them.  Has the government ever come up with realistic solutions that actually work. Rhetorical question! ha.

They comes across these men who set fire to the tress but ii doesn't burn.  The fire is extinguished.  Maebh comes across animals escaped from the zoo and walks through the gate to save herself when Clara wants to reach out and get her.  She's chased by wolves who are chased away by a tiger and Danny catches up to them and flashes torch light in the tiger's eye.  Maebh disappears again and they run after her, she's waving her arms in front of her and they think she should have her medication. She's got issues as her sister, Annabelle going missing and their solution was to medicate her.

They find Maebh and she tries to send the trees back but she can't stop it.  The Doctor realizes earth will be affected by the solar flare, just as the Bank of Karabraxos was in Time Heist.  There's nothing they can do to save them.  He uses his sonic to dissipate the lights and they speak trough Maebh, telling him they've been here for an eternity really and through all their human wars, after which they will still be here.  They're not here to harm them.  Maebh tells them Clara's thoughts led her to the Doctor, couldn't she say thought properly, sounded like 'fought.'  Clara convinces the Doctor he can use the TARDIS as a lifeboat and can save some of the people.  It was a way for her to lure the Doctor there and she tells him he should go and the human race can save itself now.  That he should go somewhere else and save them.  He adds he also walks here and breathes their air.  She convinced him to come here to save people otherwise he wouldn't have come.  These children need to be with their parents she tells him and they will always want them.

The Doctor realizes there's a way to save the planet and that the trees build up oxygen and will release it when the solar flare passes, thus saving the planet.  The Tunguska incident in 1908 which didn't blow the whole planet off its axis, so it's happened before and so they can still be saved.  The impact will burn off the excess oxygen in the atmosphere.  However Danny tells them the government is planning on spraying defoliating agent on the leaves.  This is another useless attempt by the government to rid the trees.  The Doctor must warn them but Maebh says she started it, so she wants to do it.  Reading out a message to the world to leave the trees alone.

There's lots of references to Danny being a soldier again, okay only one, but he says it again this time, as if we didn't know already by now.  He doesn't want to see what he's lost but the things that are in front of him.  He doesn't want to see the solar flare but his life is here.  The children want their mums too.  "Fear a little bit less, trust a little bit more," as he quotes Maebe to Clara.   He wants to know the truth even if he doesn't like it.

Then the Doctor mentions lying again as a direct reference to what Clara has been doing and even Danny now knows she's been spending time with the Doctor but keeping it from him.  A bit of a comedic romp through London covered in trees and also poor Nelson losing his other arm too when his Column collapsed!  Clara introduces the class to the Doctor, but do they mean to say that they didn't already know about him with his stint as the caretaker.

As they watch the solar flares being soaked up by the oxygen like an airbag, Missy (Michelle Gomez) also watches again, who else.  Clara wonders how they'll explain an overnight forest disappearing the next day and he says they'll forget.  They forget their fears and turn them into fairy stories, if they remembered then superpowers would stop having wars, having babies.  As Maebe returns home with her mother, the hydrangeas disappear to reveal Annabel (Eloise Barnes).

The TARDIS telling the Doctor "you have reached your destination" over and over when he thinks he had to be somewhere else.  This ep was a reversal of the last one where the Boneless were harming everyone here and had evil intentions.  Here the trees are the opposite and are here protecting the earth as they have done so over the years.  Though it takes a while for this to click for the Doctor that Earth has been through this and survived.  Forgot to add the Doctor referring to Clara's face as being too round again! Ha.

The next episode looks good especially as we need to know the truth about Clara and seems Missy is behind all this.  Has she been manipulating everyone form the outset and as soon as we met Clara? Okay I'm just observing, ha.

Doctor Who 8.9 "Flatline" Review

                                              
A man on a phone calls the police for help as he tells them to listen.  The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) brings Clara (Jenna Coleman) home at the exact moment she left, well, exact moment-ish and realizes he can't do that.  He also works out that Danny (Sam Anderson) doesn't know she's been with him, cos really she gives herself away.  Clara points out the TARDIS door to him and notices it's smaller in size.  Climbing out of the door, or just about managing to, the TARDIS is now the size of a Wendy house (I want one of those - a TARDIS that size not a Wendy house! ha!)  Clara realizing they're in Bristol and not even close to home, but he's more interested in the size. She heads out to investigate anything from the area and comes across a mural painted on some tunnels, also a memorial where flowers have been laid and photos.

A boy who is Rigsy (Jovian wade) asks her who she's lost, as he's lost his aunt, showing her the back of her on the mural.  Returning to the TARDIS she now finds it's shrunk even further and he pokes his head through the door.  The Doctor gives her the Sonic and his psychic paper as she may need it and she remarks how she's the Doctor now.  Well she could be and would've made a good Doctor I think. She has to also carry the TARDIS in her bag (think most people have one of those miniature sized ones around!)

She meets Rigsy again who asks where she is from and who she is, saying she's a Doctor, well not really but it sounds important enough.   He takes her to the missing man's flat which has been sealed off by the police and she doesn't notice the pattern on the wall, I used pattern, but it's' not that.  Clara speaks to the Doctor and he thinks Rigsy will be good to have around for local knowledge.  Telling her not to scare him off.  She puts the TARDIS on the mantle, so that he can hear along with her and she shows him the Doctor inside, Rigsy saying it's bigger on the inside, which even the Doctor thinks about again.  Also asking if they're aliens, Clara responding the Doctor is.  Clara thinks the man may have shrunk, with the Doctor commenting he may have been squished by the police already.

Rigsy mentions something which gets the Doctor thinking and realizes they may be in the walls. Clara talks with PC Forrest (Jessica Hayles) (appropriate name, or not) about being from MI5 and that they could be in the walls, as she brings along a sledge hammer.   Erm, guessing that didn't come out of her bag! ha.  Forrest speaks on the phone in the other room and says there's something happening here, but she doesn't hear her.  Forrest is sucked through the floor.  Clara hears her scream, took her a bit long and she finds her gone.  The Doctor notices the mural on the wall is a pattern of her nervous system, as it resembles a forest, so she's in the wall.  Then the door closes and the handle vanishes, or rather becomes flat.  As things from the room start disappearing, Rigsy gets onto the chair suspended from the ceiling.  The window being an option out of the room, which the Doctor tells her to use.

Just then Danny had to call of course and she's late for their 'boring' meeting on the park bench.  She denies that she's with the Doctor and here she definitely becomes like the Doctor and lies.  Again the Doctor finding out firsthand how he sounds like all those times he has lied in his attempts to help people or to put their minds at ease.  She manages to get the chair to swing and crash through the window and will call him later.

Rigsy returns late from his lunch and one of the men is sucked into the wall, whilst their boss doesn't want to listen to her when she tells them to leave here.  Heading to an abandoned railway siding, the Doctor thinks they should try and communicate with them, cos maybe they are trying to do the same and don't realize they're hurting the humans.  Which was futile, all they get are two numbers, 55 which was the man who was sucked in, with Rigsy noticing it's the numbers on their jackets.  The next number they speak is 22.  Which is George's (Raj Bajraj) number.  Rigsy knows his way around here and tells them the only way out is in the tunnels below.  Number 22 then also is sucked through the ground.  "His number's up."

The Doctor tries to work out what's happening and we see the formulas on the board again, haven't seen that board in a while.  Funny line the Doctor calling the community service workers "pudding brains;" well they kind of were, especially their boss, who had to do everything by the book, remember the old phrase, "it was more than his job's worth."  Well he proved that over and over.  As they follow them, they have to get to the tunnels and boss manages to throw the TARDIS out of Clara's hands down onto the track below.  The Doctor tries to find a solution and comes up with a device that will make the 2D objects become 3D.

Aka Doctor Who's foray into zombies, well the way they walked and crept around was strikingly similar.  Also thought of A-Ha's Take On Me Video for the zombie like appearances and movement of the 'things.'  I liked the reversal of everything being bigger on the inside than the outside, cos it was a visual point more easily shown when he handed Clara the Sonic and other things, which popped out actual size, showing that the TARDIS was still bigger on the inside even minuscule sized. The Doctor realizing there's a train fast approaching and he's stuck on the track.  Clara tells him to do "The Addams Family;" so he knew what that was.  When he pokes his hand out of the TARDIS and walks the TARDIS to safety, but finally falling back onto the track when he thinks he's made it.   Knew that was coming and er, the Doctor knowing what she meant when she said that,       don't know if that came as a shock or not.

Anyway the device works and the door handle becomes 3D so they can open it and get through, and can reverse it back to 2D, but not for long, as the creatures have also now evolved into 3D themselves.  Clara gets a brainwave of what they need to do, as the TARDIS needs power and life support is running out inside.

She gets Rigsy to paint a mural and it's of a non existent door, she's getting energy through the wall from the creatures and is sending it to the TARDIS, which gets replenished.  The TARDIS returns to 'normal' size and enters the tunnel, he gives them a speech about them not knowing who the humans are, about harming the people but he's protecting the plane and he's sending them back to their own dimension, whatever that may be.  He's the Doctor and he uses his Sonic to send them away, calling them the "Boneless."  Well could have said spineless but they didn't have any bones, spineless would've been suited to their cowardice.

So Clara says she heard him say she did a good job as the Doctor but he won't say that now.  Even if she wants him to say it again.  She now knows what he has to do as the Doctor.  He wants Rigsy to keep painting and will be interested in knowing what he does next.  She hangs up on Danny clicking on 'I'm in a meeting' on her phone and the Doctor tells her to talk to "soldier boy."

We see Missy (Michelle Gomez) watching Clara and how she's made a good choice in her Clara.  She has "chosen well."  Yet more in of what's in store for Clara, as long as we get some ending to her backstory and who she really is.  It's been said the miniature TARDIS resembles the Pandorica, will have to compare them now.  

CSI 14.21 "Kitty" Review

                                              
At the CS, the investigation is already underway as Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) takes charge and wants the press to stop broadcasting and wants the dog removed.  Inside a woman has been shot and killed, she's Lee Berman's (Gil Bellows) wife, bigwig owner of a casino who has connections to Ecklie (Marc Vann) and threatens to call him too, when Nick (George Eads) catches up to him.  He finds a gun in his car and an empty bag in the car boot.  Inside the house Doc (Robert David Hall) comes out in person cos he knew her and she was a good woman.  As DB (Ted Danson) later tells him, the good always pay for the bad.

Inside, Finn (Elizabeth Shue) takes photos of the CS and Greg (Eric Szmanda) works out how the elaborate security works at the house and how the intruder managed to evade it to shoot her.  DB finds a laptop on the bedroom floor and a woman appears inside of it, then everything disappears.  If Berman had moved out of the house and taken his clothes with him, what was the laptop doing there.
Cue Washington DC and a woman, Ryan Avery (Patricia Arquette) who's interested in Berman and wants to go to Vegas to pursue this case.  She's finally given clearance and has a spat with the pilot of the airplane, thinking she's getting special treatment by her having them fly her there.  She retorts with a witty comeback and he doesn't want to get embarrassed any further and so agrees to take her. Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) finds the bullets from Berman's gun don't match to the 9mm casings left at the CS, even if he did have GSR on his hand when Nick tested him at the CS.  Thus he may have been at the firing range since he's a member.  Berman is shocked that his wife has been killed and when questioned by Brass, his lawyers prevent him from talking.

Avery listens in and wants to ask her own questions, she's from FBI Cybercrimes and is a behavioural scientist.  She watches Berman's pupils enlarge when she shows him a photo of Kitty and she's not here to ask him about his wife.  He makes the lawyers leave and she knows that he was having an online affair with her.  She talks to the rest of the team and calls her own computer analyst, Clikk (Kick Gurry) asking who is into online dating sites.  Nick gives Hodges's (Wallace Langham) name since it's a good name and she finds out he's been on sites but not this particular one.  He explains it's cos of his fiancee, but she doesn't need to know.

Pulling up Kitty on the website, she works out Kitty isn't real but is an avatar.  That's what I said, she didn't look real from her movements.  Also she sees her touch the left side of her face and knows that the person is real, but the person controlling her is behind the scam.  She's used men agents and others to chat with Kitty but she only responds to those who have money.  Avery wants to work with Finn and will be able to use the hard drive to find info.  She finds that Berman was online and was being watched whilst she talked about sex, from which she earlier discovered is all Kitty talked about.  She also finds footage of Berman telling her he's not going to pay anymore and that he wants to meet by the Blue Diamond with the money, but to leave his family alone, when Kitty threatens them.

Nick checks out Berman's car and finds that the empty bag could have been used to make a payoff to the real killer even if he didn't actually kill her.  Also that he manually programmed the address of the Blue Diamond into the car.  Berman admits he was having an affair and was ashamed to mention it before cos he was doing this and his wife got killed cos of it.  They find that he was paying off the cyber criminal to stop him from hurting his wife, but there wasn't any money there and cos he was defiant, he made the man angry and he went after his wife.

Berman is released and is able to pick up his dog, but he says he doesn't own a dog.  The dog is from a shelter and Nick also finds CCTV footage of the man who rescued the dog from the shelter. Hodges and Greg both saying it's Nick with a pooch.  Hodges says that Greg will be looking after her. Hodges manages to find she was a shelter dog from her chip and Nick thinks since the gated community was able to have people walking their dogs, that's how the killer got in.  Security would have thought he was just another man.  They finds the killer's abandoned car at the airport and he's in the wind.  Nick also shows Avery the 'proof of kill' video on the burn phone which she didn't particularly want to watch.

As Berman is released, he sees a woman who is Kitty and calls out to her.  Kitty is actually Susan (Torrey DeVitto) just a wife and mother of two girls who says her face has been plastered all over the news. He took her face and her body to make an avatar and take money from people by running this sex site.  Avery asks her if she's on any social sites and she's on one, 'Friendagenda' but she only knows two people on there.  There's once called Nebula 1, who has been on the site  a number of times.   Avery also tells Susan that she grinds her teeth at night, which is why she touches her face, that's how she knew she was real.  Avery manages to find out what his avatar pic was before Nebula 1 and she asks Nick how often he's changed his avatar, he says once after he shaved his beard off.  Yes noticed there was something different about Nicky! ha.  She comments how Nebula means dark mist.

She looks at his room and Nick notices all the take out boxes in his trash, as well as saying the photo was taken in the dark.  Avery posits he's an agoraphobe who has his food delivered so he can't go out. She asks Nick why he thought the photo was taken in the night and he says cos of the stars outside. Obviously I said they weren't stars but lights and this leads her to the archway.  When officers arrive, he's gone but there's plenty of screens open with men on the sites.  She asks to see the four corners of the room and tells them to run when she sees the camera.  Also knew that explosion was coming, it was that obvious.

Avery is angry she didn't realize before that he wasn't in Vegas and she says DB's killer and her man are in the wind now, she made him go outside.  She finds the only way she can lure him out now is if she uses Susan as bait, but she promised she'd protect her and her daughters.  She makes her give a press conference to lure him out and says that she was used by him and was cyber raped, which is still rape, she wants him to come out and she's not afraid of him.  Avery arrives at her house pretending to be her and he comes up behind her with a gun.  Avery tells him he wants to hurt her but he hasn't used that gun before.  He got the killer to kill Berman's wife, but he threatens to use it now. She makes him use the knife saying he wants to cut her, which he does when he slashes her arm.  She won't use her code word yet, cos she's adding more time to his sentence for assaulting an agent.  She finally says her code word, 'mushroom' and he's arrested.

Avery brings out Susan's husband to visit them from Afghanistan and says she'll be seeing DB again. This was the Pilot ep to new show CSI:Cyber, which Channel 5 will be showing here next year.  Adding a third show to the CSI line of spin offs with CSI:Miami which ran for ten years and CSI:NY which ran for nine and were no longer seen as viable options.  Funny when she was walking to the plane, that music/song being played had a beat of  CSI:Miami "Won't Get Fooled Again" to it. So she's off to investigate a bank robbery where 3C was stolen out of many accounts, adding up to $80 million, will that be the first ep of the new series.

Right will have to remember Nick's line of 'back the bus up!" for future reference when some shocking comment is required! ha.  Seemed like a bit of a routine ep but showing how easy it is to get hacked and info used from social networks and sites.  Sara wasn't in this ep and neither was Henry again.

Downton Abbey Series 5 Episode 5 Review

                                                   
Robert (Hugh Bonneville) talks about being away for a Lord Lieutenant's dinner in Sheffield and will have to stay the night, as they also mention a cocktail party being planned at Downton, which Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) prefers as you don't have to sit through several courses of dinner.  Rosamund (Samantha Bond) is staying with them for a while and is here cos of Mary's (Michelle Dockery) faux pas, well putting her foot in it, which she didn't realize she'd done after telling her how Edith (Laura Carmichael) is doting on a child.  Rosamund wants to see Marigold.

Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) has been left money by an aunt and she wants to invest it, even if it's only a £100, so she asks for Carson's (Jim carter) advice.  As she later tells Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) it's cos he's a man and as she replies, they like to make them feel they're useful.  Since she rejects his advice and doesn't want to invest in the building trade, i.e. building houses, which Robert has decided they will do and has probably found a firm to do this, which is the same one Carson recommends to Mrs Patmore.  She decides she'd rather buy a cottage and rent it out, then later take in lodgers.

Thomas (Rob James-Collier) looks the worse for wear, as we still don't know what ails him and he still tells Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) to stay out of his way and is curious about Bates (Brendan Coyle) and Green, as the sergeant returns to question Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and Mary with an Inspector Vyner (Louis Hilyer) from London, you could say, 'an Inspector calls' or not!  He questions Mary about whether Anna could have been in London, as she doesn't know where she was all the time and she mentions how they had to rush to catch the train for a fete here the next day.  That's when Gillingham broke the news and Anna was shocked.   As well as asking if Bates was in York or not.

Anna tells him she liked Green and she wouldn't know about Bates liking him, but everyone has their own tastes.   The Inspector telling her not to leave, but she can go to London, was basically telling her you're under suspicion.  Why didn't he just question Bates himself anyway?  Bates later tells Anna he won't let anyone hurt her again and they'll think of this when they're sitting round the fire with their children around them.  She asking how many children he wants.  Seems that even if the finger of suspicion is pointing at either Anna or Bates right now, it'll turn out to be someone completely different from Green's past or maybe an accident after all.  As I don't really see Downton going down prison territory again as they already covered that with Bates and his ex wife, though he was innocent of killing her.  As I wrote this I just thought of Thomas, could it have been Thomas, putting aside his nosiness, especially as he seems particularly interested in whether the sergeant will be coming back again and if he'll be questioning Anna once more?  Hmm, will have to ponder this further!

Mary has a meeting with Charles (Julien Ovenden) in London and he has invited Miss Lane Fox (Catherine Steadman) (or Slain Fox as I call her) so they can settle this thing with Gillingham once and for all. She loves him and was only jilted cos Mary came along and on both occasions Mary says this isn't her idea.  Firstly, to be here and secondly using her to get Gillingham off Mary's back. Though they do enjoy their lunch together.  It's obvious Mary is more interested in Charles since last series.

Edith take Rosamund to see Marigold and this only gets Mrs Drew's (Emma Lowndes) back up as she's busy and she complains to her husband they're only using her as a toy, now Edith's brought her posh relatives to see her.  Drew (Andrew Scarborough) also tells Edith that if she continues to come around his wife will want to leave the farm and move on, taking Marigold with her.  So effectively his hands are tied.  Yet Edith still wants to do the right thing, she's past that now anyway when she had the baby.  Even if Rosamund and the Dowager (Maggie Smith) find out she's got her here and wants to keep her.  Rosamund suggests school in France and she can visit her, but Edith thinks London.  Cora comes in but doesn't hear their conversation.  It seems Edith should trust her mother on this as Cora's not as stuffy and tied up with tradition as Edith seems to think.  She has progressed more with the times and with society.  It will come out eventually, but for now it's still being dragged out for plot purposes.

Rose (Lily James) buys more cake for the Russians who love their cake and bumps into a banker, Atticus Aldridge (Matt Barber) who tells her his family is also Russian, but they moved here many years ago.  She takes him to the tearoom with her and the second time there, he meets Kuragin (Rade Sherbedgia) and another man who raves on about him being from Odessa, the time when the Jews were forced to leave there.  He's leaving for London and Rose would like to see him again.  As she tells everyone over dinner.  Shrimpie has found out the Princess may be working as a nurse near Hong Kong, which the Dowager still sees as beneath her.  As well as getting Dr Clarkson (David Robb) to come to lunch and see if Merton (Douglas Reith) is really interested in Isabel (Penelope Wilton) and medicine, or if he is just using her to ease his loneliness.

Also telling Isabel that Spratt (Jeremy swift) is upset cos Collins will be leaving and he'll not have anyone to boss about when she does go.  The luncheon seems to be a success, as Merton talks of iodine and how goitres can be easily cured by its use.  He's just read of it, though he wishes he studied it.  Dr Clarkson and the Dowager both agree he likes Isabel and also is really interested in medicine as he said.

Bunting (Daisy Lewis) is leaving since she's got a job offer at a grammar school and still manages to rile everyone up, Carson this time, when she turns up to tell them.  Funny no one gave Robert the memo, ha.  She tells Daisy (Sophie McShera) to continue studying and also Daisy can't keep her mouth shut and says it's cos Branson (Allen Leech) won't stick up for her.  daisy getting out of her station, ha, when she tells Brason she's leaving and how, "we're the future, they are the past." Being caught by Carson.  So Branson says goodbye to Bunting (could I add good riddance?) and he tells her she reminded him he's not the only socialist still left, as well as saying that his wife was one of them and so's his daughter.  Bunting replies how she loves him, but there's no hope for them.

Baxter tells Molesley (Kevin Doyle) about her story, only since he asks and he tells her she's a victim and shouldn't be so hard on herself, but it appears she still feels guilty and wants to punish herself. Thomas still noses around about the police sergeant and whether he will be back again.  Anna doesn't know, but she hopes he doesn't and Bates asks why he keeps tormenting her, well cos he can.

Bricker (Richard E Grant) is also coming to take photos of the painting for his book and is only using it as an excuse to see Cora again.  Which was a rather funny scene in terms of Robert returning early and having a bawl with him after he finds him in their bedroom.  Well he was just waiting for the moment to lash out at Bricker as soon as he met him.  A little like he'd do the same if Bunting was a man! ha. But anyone would lash out at her, she was so irritating.   Bricker telling him it's his own fault for the way he treats his wife.   So that gave him carte blanche to enter her room uninvited! Next day he was practically thrown out as his suitcase is already in the car and he looks up at Cora watching him through the window.  His own fault, she did tell him to behave! ha.  Robert is then annoyed with Cora as if she was the cause of the kerfuffle so he sleeps in his dressing room.  Then at the cocktail party, he refuses to talk with her.  

Suppose the best bit had to be rose talking about a nudist spa opening in Essex, with the Dowager adding that it's damp there, so it'll be cold for them.  Isobel remarking how they didn't have the Dowager in mind when they opened it.  Oh, they should get their own show!

Supernatural Turns Ten - In Seasons At Least

                                             
Bet you thought I'd let the ten season anniversary of one of my fave shows slip by without the slightest hint of a mention, well you thought wrong.  Supernatural turned 10 on September 13 2014, happy birthday.  Having premiered on 13th September 2005.  Okay I know, at least ten in terms of ten seasons, but hey it's not that far to go before it officially will have been on air for 10 years.  Not so in the UK though, we can't keep anything, if we do, we don't get it for long.  Aired on ITV2, then was bought by SkyLiving which was shortlived.  Cos it then when to some place up in the clouds or rather left die hard British fans in purgatory.

One of the best, enduring show around which had a lot to say to the creator, Eric Kripke and his mind! As well as the superb cast of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles.  They were little known when they started out, though to be fair, we did know them in the various shows they appeared in and loved them even back then.  We all recall Jared from Gilmore Girls and Jensen from Dark Angel, Dawson's Creek, Smallville.

He was also in the short lived show Still Life which went disappearing into that black hole somewhere.  Come to think of it, if that had been successful, Jensen wouldn't really have been available for Supernatural, then where would we have been?  Dean...  A bit of a ghostly show in its own right, or could be seen as the forerunner to Desperate Housewives which began 2004, when Mary Alice committed suicide and then came back as narrator.  Well, here Jake, Max's brother (Max played by Jensen) a cop who was murdered on his first day, returns to his family as a narrator.

Supernatural had it all (still does) starting out as two brothers on a quest to find their Dad, John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and what killed their Mom (Samantha Smith).  Which resonated more onto big brother Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) than it did on baby sibling Sam/Sammy (Jared Padalecki) "helping people, hunting things, the family business" has been oft echoed far and wide, from Dean's lips to our own, ah.  Hey steady on there, it doesn't sound like something people may be thinking!

Lots of supernatural cases to solve, based on lore, myths and legends to an extent, was the backbone of this show in the first two seasons at least.  Though demons were on the horizon already with Yellow Eyes/Azazel.   Season 2 when Dad was killed and died.  A massive effect on those of us who were going through much the same thing in their own lives, including me.  It was cathartic to a certain degree.  Everything Sam and Dean were feeling, we felt the same.  All that emotion being played out on screen seemed surreal, almost, but it was real and it was identifying with everything they said.  More than they did.

Season 3 had much the same formula, before we got to Bela working to save her soul having made a deal with the devil.  As well as Ruby, the so-called witch who aimed to help them, though she turned out to be a demon too.  Having a negative impact on Sam and serving to drive a wedge between the two brothers.  Leading Sam astray and into his demon blood drinking antics in season 4: the season which set the brothers apart form each other and driving Dean to despair in not being able to save his brother, trying to hide his disgust at this   Season 4 also heralded (no pun) the angels and their introduction into the show.  Much to many a chagrin from those who protested against the show delving into such areas.  It was inevitable, if it contained demons, angels would never be far behind. An extension of Sam believing, praying and how he followed Mom's own beliefs.

We had vampires, quite a number of them, Dean becoming a vampire, Bobby (Jim Beaver) Ellen (Samantha Ferris) Jo (Alona Tal) Ash (Chad Lindberg) meeting their maternal grandfather Sam (Mitch Pileggi) with secrets of his own, finding out Mom was a hunter too, Castiel (Misha Collins) Crowley (Mark Sheppard) Lucifer (Mark Pelligrino) Ghostfacers, the Leviathan...Let's not forget Baby: the Impala!  Even now coming round full circle with Dean becoming a demon, the very evil he detested from early on in season 1.

Deans's line from the Pilot, "So what are you gonna do?  You gonna live some normal apple pie life, is that it?"
One line, or rather the pie angle which not only became an in joke, but echoed throughout many seasons of the show.  A bit ironic in terms of how something that started off by probably just being  a throwaway line, could garner so much meaning in becoming a character staple for Dean.

We watched the guys grow up in front of us and become part of our family.  The sweetest, most down to earth boys you will ever meet.

Supernatural contains pop culture refs and is as embedded and steeped in pop culture itself as it ever will be.  We've been raving on about this show for a decade and there's no signs of this letting up!
Join in the Supernatural mantra the world over: "carry on my wayward son..."

CSI 14.20 "Consumed" Review

                                                
This ep of CSI begins differently to most eps in that Nick (George Eads) and Greg (Eric Szmanda) are already interviewing a Vic, Owen (Brandon Keener) who claims he had a chunk of his leg removed to be eaten.  He was blindfolded and led to where this happened.  He says that Nick took a bite out of him and we see Nick with blood on his hands and around his mouth as if he really did eat part of his body.  He then changes his mind and says he sounded more like Greg.  He could smell brimstone, but he didn't see his attacker.  Doc (Robert David Hall) calls Nick and shows him the severed arm they found, which had a chunk removed from it like a steak and a serrated steak knife was used to make the cut.  As well as the arm having traces of salt and sage, which Doc adds didn't come from his tasting but Hodge's (Wallace Langham) analysis.  Nick hopes they find the rest of the body and that he will still be alive, which seems pretty unlikely.  Maybe I should substitute pretty for highly unlikely.

Doc then examines the arm and DB (Ted Danson) takes a maggot from the arm, and they determine whoever made the cuts didn't have any medical training.  Nick IDs the arm as belonging to a Dennis Hagel (Sheldon Coolman) and he hopes he turns out to be alive.  Greg checks out Owen and tells DB he spent time on a cannibalistic website.  He has a 'vore' fetish which stands for vorarephilia, a fantasy which involves another person eating them.  Owen tells Greg it was just roleplay but he took it too far.  After contacting him, he picked him up at his home and blindfolded him,  He went along willingly.  When Owen finds out what Dennis did for a living, filming, he directs (no pun) Greg to a website, which has a snuff video showing everywhere.

Sara (Jorga Fox) and Morgan (Elizabeth Harnois) watch this video as a Miss Feed apparently strips to her undies and then a man places an endoscopic camera in her mouth, leading to her stomach.  Sara then notices the edge of the knife as she's stabbed on camera.  Morgan prints frame by frame footage of the video and Sara finds from the stomach contents that she had eaten a doughnut covered hotdog, identifying she got her meal at Hangover Grill and she is IDed from the receipts as Brenda (Heather Ann Davis) with Morgan commenting she's not going there again.  Morgan also tells Sara about a logo on the knife which is Russian.

Ecklie (Marc Vann) talks to DB about his job and how he misses being in the lab, it's a clean job and DB comments his is too, as long as he hasn't been burying bodies in the desert yet.  He can understand why that happened.  He's thinking of giving up being sheriff at the next election, but we somehow know that won't happen.  There's not much evidence for them to go on at the moment.  Morgan and Sara find Brenda's house and her DB, along with Dennis's.  Both of them had chunks removed from their DBs, Dennis specifically had his whole arm removed and it appears that Dennis was stabbed first and is inconsequential.  Her bag is also missing, so Sara thinks the killer is a cannibal, and a thief too.

Hodges tells Greg about reading up on cannibals since he took a cruise in the Caribbean when he was 11 and that the killer saw Brenda as eating all those bodies and thus she contained all their spirits. Her credit card was used by her sister, Colleen (Nicole LaLiberte) but she was in jail when Brenda was killed.  She uses Meth and needed money from her which she wouldn't give her.  Brenda told her she was helping people who couldn't help themselves much like Colleen.

Finn (Elisabeth Shue) has an invite to a party where Brenda was invited and Morgan rushed in asking if she's going on a date with Nick.  Finn assures her it's only a 'work date.'  Why did Morgan look so concerned, well she did.  Nick and Finn enter the property where everyone watches them and appear to be feeding on bloody body parts.  One of the guests who appears to be the host brings out the main course, an apparent DB on a table.  Finn calls for back up and Nick finds it's jello.  The DB wakes up and was paid $100 to be the main course, which Nick tells him will pay for his trespassing of the property.

Finn takes Gary Karlov (Steve Valentine) prints and notices the cufflinks, which have the same logo from the knife.  It's a family crest from his village.  Finn shows him the CS photos and he admits he's got a fetish of being fed on. He shows her his chest where he gave the killer pieces of his own flesh to eat and watched him dine, as well as giving him the knife.  Brenda was helping him get over this fetish and the man, named Eater, didn't like losing his 'food' supply so he killed her.

Gary gives them a sketch of the man which is broadcast on the news, describing him as the devil. Greg works on where the man could be and where Owen was held, as he recalls train sounds, the smell of brimstone which Owen mentioned and could be sulphur from a pesticide factory.  When Sara and Greg arrive there, the place is deserted but they find his table prepared for another meal.

A security man runs inside LVPD saying he has the man handcuffed in his car, but when they arrive, it's empty except for a severed hand in the handcuffs, which is supposed to show he ate his own hand and escaped.  The security man, Todd (Eric Petersen) admits the killer chose him as he threatened his niece and nephew and had their photos.  Also that when you looked at him, he talked you into doing whatever he wanted.  Moments later he has a ceasure and dies of cyanide poisoning, leading Ecklie to say that he was the man as he wanted to be remembered for his crimes.  Finn asks Gary to ID Todd, but he says it's not him, Finn thinking he's lying.  David (David Berman) finds the hand didn't even belong to the killer but to someone else and it was cut, not bitten off from the arm.

DB is angry that Ecklie broadcast the news since they're not even sure he's the killer, but he's made his decision which is also to run for sheriff again.  He thinks Todd and Gary were working as one to spread the myth.  As DB gets a cup of coffee, he spots the killer in the crowd, but bumps into a woman and the killer vanishes.

Yeah, to return another episode, well he had better.  CSI once again delving into the spooky and supernatural with this dark tale of fetish and a man being able to supernaturally control others.  Suppose there could be some truth in the rumours that he could be supernatural and powerful as Hodges says, getting his powers from the spirits of the bodies he consumes, but he's really only going to turn out to be a killer with a fetish gone too far.  Steven Valentine always appears in such macabre eps of shows, he was also into this stuff when he was in Crossing Jordan, as Dr Nigel Townsend. Also Brass and Henry were both missing this ep.  Can't believe that Paul Guilfoyle didn't even get to film a whole season of 22 eps before they 'disposed' of him from the show!

Downton Abbey Series 5 Episode 4 Review

                                              
At breakfast they talk of Shrimpie (Peter Egan) coming down and he wants to stay with them.  Robert (Hugh Bonneville) wonders where he'll be sent to next after Bombay, but Mary (Michelle Dockery) signals not to pursue it any further, as Rose (Lily James) doesn't know of her parent's divorce yet.  Isabel (Penelope Wilton) asks how Rose's Russians are doing and they're still despairing.  Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) announces that Bricker (Richard E Grant) will be coming down to view the painting again and to get her opinions, which makes Robert more defensive and jealous.  Also there's talk yet again of Bunting (Daisy Lewis) and how she's affecting Branson, (Allen Leech) leading him back to his old ways.  Walking to the village, they see the war memorial underway and Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nichol) watches the building in tears.  Robert wishes he knew what was wrong with her and later Carson (Jim Carter) tells him.

Robert speaks with her and lets her know that he understands, but the War Office won't let them do anything. She's grateful he sympathizes more than Carson.  Since shell shock affected his mind and so he wasn't aware what he was doing.  It's now more well known what the affect this can have on men.  Yet they're still treated as cowards for their actions.  Her nephew volunteered and fought for his country, he didn't wait around until he was called up.  Mary, Branson and Robert also visits Pip's Corner, the proposed site of the new development of houses and he hates the way in which everything will be altered by cheap housing.

Edith (Laura Carmichael) finds out from Michael's office that there's a trial going on in Germany concerning the notorious Brown Shirts and they may find out what happened to Michael.  She's upset, but Robert thinks it's best she knows once and for all.  Which she agrees with as she doesn't want anymore of Mary's pity.  Robert pities her too.  To make matters worse, she can't even see Marigold anymore cos of Mrs Drewe and Robert thinks she should wait a few months before she she should impose on them again.  He knew this would happen.  Well he seems to know plenty except for the fact his wife's opinions mean nothing to him.

The Dowager (Maggie Smith) and Isabel travel to London and visit Prince Kuragin (Rade Serbedzija) as they reminisce again.  He doesn't know where the Princess is and the Dowager asks Shrimpy to look for her.  Also confiding in Isabel how she was attracted to him back then, but her husband gave her a Faberge frame with photos of her two children.  Of course Isabel already knew how she felt about him.

Mary heads out to London as Rosamund (Samantha Bond) is taking her to a dress show, which Robert belittles as not being that important, but it is for Mary.  She also wants to dump Gillingham (Tom Cullen) as she realizes how she feels about him.  At the show, she sees Charles (Julian Ovenden) with another woman and he introduces her as Miss Lane Fox and he presumes they already know each other.  However, they only know of each other.  It seems she can see why she was jilted in favour of Mary, but now the shoe's on the other foot and it's Mary who'll be doing the jilting, she hopes.  Charles invites her to dinner, where she tells him about dumping Gillingham and he thinks there may be a way for her to soften the blow.  She's agreed to meet him at Kensington, near the Peter Pan statue, with Charles remarking that may make him more clucky! ha.  She wants Gillingham be be godfather to her children, but not their father.

She meets with him, but he doesn't take the news at all.  In typical male fashion he assumes that she's dumping him after their fling and now has decided she doesn't want him, after they've slept together. Assuming once again that a woman can only sleep with her intended future husband, as she's decided he must be that first.  But a man can sleep around to his heart's content and has no such labels or presumptions applied to him.  What's the guess he'll blackmail her reputation to reveal all, with Charles dashing to her rescue!

Anna (Joanne Froggatt) meanwhile is sent to deliver the note to Gillingham's house in person and here she's followed by a plain clothes policeman.  She even heads all the way to Piccadilly, where Green was killed.  Nothing is made of this until the sergeant turns up at Downton again asking more questions.  This time specifically about Anna's whereabouts on the day Green was killed and whether she liked him or not.  Mrs Hughes (Phyliss Logan) says she did and it's a bit silly but it's been in all the papers and they did 'know' each other, so what's suspicious going to see where it happened, Of course we all know where this storyline is headed, with Bates (Brendan Coyle) still not telling Anna where he was that day and she doesn't confide in him either, that there's something about Green and she suspects Bates.  Or does she?

Thomas (Rob James-Collier) returns apparently after his father is now better, but looks rather pale. Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) catches him with some syringes and medical supplies and assumes it's him who is ill, not his father.  He also takes back a magazine that Mrs Hughes found on the floor and looks through it.  Of course he's not going to tell her what's wrong with him.  Molesley (Kevin Doyle) is suffering under the label of 'first footman' as Carson ensures he gets all the wok to do, including being valet, polishing the silver and cleaning the boots, until he finally gets to the point where he asks Carson to reduce his duties, since he's doing everything a second and third footman would be doing.  Exactly what Carson wanted him to do,

Shrimpie tells Rose he and Susan are divorcing and she wants to live with him.  Also asking him to be behind her when she finds the right man to marry for love.  He tells the Dowager that many of the Russians ended up in Hong Kong, as taxi drivers, some were even prostitutes and she dreads to think the Princess could be doing the same.  Lord Merton (Douglas Reith) proposes to Isabel cos he loves her and she promises to think about it.  The Dowager wanting her to reject him outright.  But she's not going to do that.

Bricker examines the painting again and will be staying on a few days further, but still can't resist flirting with Cora, much to Robert's chagrin, who interferes in their little one-sided triste, still being tense with Cora.  The Dowager asking if he doesn't value Cora's opinions.  His reply is he does, most of the time, but not always, therein lies the problem.  Rose thinks Branson should ask Bunting to dinner and Cora tells him he should, knowing this will infuriate Robert and sure enough is fuel to the fire, when at dinner, she remarks on Daisy (Sophie McShera) and how he doesn't even know her name.  Which he says he does.  Then asks for Daisy to be sent for and Mrs Patmore too, since she's been complaining Daisy's studies are getting in the way of work.  She may have said that as she was preoccupied with things happening with her nephew, but Daisy has nothing but praise for Bunting. Who still can't keep her mouth shut and has never heard of a tactical retreat.  Robert has an outburst and leaves the table enraged.  Mary defending him and Branson doesn't do much of anything.

Branson tells Bunting that he loves them all and that she forgets that his daughter is one of them too. Bunting doesn't want him to be changed by them.  Robert later decides they will develop the land, but only according to their terms and the sort of housing they want, nothing cheap or ugly.  Edith doesn't get to see Marigold and Mary lets slip to Rosamund about her doting over Marigold, whom she calls, "it."  Not even realizing that hasn't let slip to Rosamund that Marigold is a 'she'.

Looks like someone should use their influence and get Bunting removed from the school ASAP, well they do have the connections to see do this. Surprised no one's thought of it, yes Robert, why haven't you?  That way she will never mess up another dinner at Downton!  Let's see, is she three for three! What the deuce does Branson see in her, cos she's no Sybil with her wild ideas.  This Bunting just wants to shove her foot into everything first chance she gets and that's not really 'guiding' Branson back to what he used to believe in and stand for. Mary telling him that was the best dinner the Dowager has had.

Oh and you may recall from my reviews last series, I already put forward Anna as a suspect in the killing of Green!  So it's no big deal, or surprises that she's possibly being suspected of it now and put under the police radar!  So perceptive of me, it was that obvious even back then! Ha.

Oh and can we not keep harking back to Pemuk since it appears Mary is a serial man magnet or something or another when it comes to not being able to keep her hands off men, even if they turn out to drag the family name through the mud.  Which is rather hypocritical of the Dowager, not only when she tells Mary that nothing happened between her and the Prince last ep, but this ep she tells Edith that she's looking out for the family and Edith too, which to her are the same thing.  Yet Mary is the one who is causing the most scandal once again, with her inability tot make the right judgement calls as far as her beaus are concerned!

Doctor Who 8.8 "Mummy on the Orient Express" Review

                                           
The Orient Express in Space this time, whereas before it was the Titanic and various other shuttles in one form or another of import. An old woman, Mrs Pitt (Janet Henfry) sees a bandaged Mummy which no one else can see and demands it be removed from the compartment.  However a clock starts running and she has 66 seconds to live.  Just incase no one worked that out, cos as soon as the clock reaches zero, the countdown stops and she's died.  It's put down to a heart attack and she was actually over a 100 years old.  Though her daughter, Maisie (Daisy Beaumont) appears to be distraught over it, beware appearances can be deceptive especially in this show.

The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) brings Clara (Jenna Coleman) aboard and it appears they seem to have made up after their falling out last ep, at least after her telling him to leave.  But as later revealed, this is only their "last hurrah," as she's adamant she is leaving him.  So it was only fitting that he brought her here.  They only just got here so they don't know what's happened and Captain (Quell (David Bamber) hasn't met them either. Since the Doctor shows them the psychic paper and has stated he's a mystery shopper.  So he comments he hates their breakfast bar and he needs extra pillows, when the Captain calls head office and finds there is no mystery shopper on board.  As Maisie is angry when she hears the Doctor talk about some train or another and states that he's lying cos he has to be really old to have been there.  He calls him out on being a liar, which as later events will show she wasn't quite wrong there.

Clara calls Danny (Sam Anderson) and tells him where she is and he tells her to enjoy herself.  Then as the Doctor sneaks out to be a "nosey Parker" as he calls himself, Clara does the same thing too, but he's not around.  He talks to the chief engineer (Frank Skinner) who's being doing his own investigating.  Whilst they ponder, one of the kitchen staff is next and he locks himself into the freezer, but of course there's no escaping Mummy.  He has only 66 seconds to live also. The Doctor remarks on how Professor Moorhouse (Christopher Villiers) is an expert on the "Foretold."  How people offer riches and other things as an enticement to it.  But he knows about the 66 seconds. Offering the Professor jelly beans from a cigarette case was a stroke of genius, as was the Doctor mentioning he's also a genius again to Perkins.  As well as a nosey Parker.

Clara follows Maisie as she wants to see her mother and thing is they won't let her see her and she can't get into the compartment either.  So she uses her shoe to break the control panel and they find themselves locked inside.  She's not really crazy, just upset over the death and apparently she disliked her, she was her grandmother really and made her call her mother.  Clara tries to get hold of the Doctor and finally manages to get in a word shouting she's trapped.  Which sends him running to help her out.  But the Sonic is useless and can't open the door.  In fact the Sonic does the opposite and activates the sarcophagus which contains nothing but bubblewrap.

The Doctor tells the Captain that he's a coward and he's not even bothering to investigate.  Not until one of his guards is killed by the Mummy, does it urge him to take some action.  Shortlived as that was.  The Professor is next on the Mummy's list and the Doctor needs to know what he can see and describe the Mummy.  But he can't save him.  The guests disappear as they were all holograms, except for a select few who were intentionally brought here since they're experts in their field.  Gus speaks to them and he wants them to catch the Mummy and that's what the sarcophagus is for. They're able to do X-rays and find that the Mummy is going after people who have something wrong with them, physically or mentally.  The Captain admitting the kitchen hand was dying.  The guard had synthetic lungs and the Captain suffers from some sort of post traumatic stress.

So he's next and says he might as well go out doing something useful.  Maisie is also suffering over the death and the Doctor tells Clara to bring her here under false pretences, by telling her he can save her.  When she does bring her, she finds out he lied, but when Maisie sees the Mummy, he steps in front of her and takes all her pain and injects it into himself.  Thus being able to see the Mummy now, he is able to work out the Mummy is really a soldier, who was transported here when his ancient tech failed.

Funny line when the Doctor asks, "are you my mummy?"  Not that it was meant to be cos this Doctor doesn't do humour, nor does he do emotion either.  Clara referring to him as being the impossible man again.   Seems there's no getting away from that word in this show.  So it turns out the Doctor knows how to stop the Mummy after all, by discovering the piece of the scroll isn't a scroll or parchment, but a flag.  The Mummy being a soldier and it needs to stop fighting the war.  The Doctor saying he surrenders, they surrender, stopping the Mummy in its tracks as it disintegrates.  And as it does so, it leaves behind the transporter that was inside.  Gus thanking the Doctor but he now proceeds to knock everyone out and the Doctor has to save the day.

Once again they end up on a beach somewhere on another planet, just as last ep when they saved the moon, so to speak.  He transported everyone onto the TARDIS and brought them here, to the nearest planet.  Clara was sleeping so he left her asleep on the beach.  She asks the Doctor if he really saved everyone and he says no he didn't, he only saved the two of them and he has to say that.  He talks about lying and having to lie cos he didn't want Gus to know what he was thinking when he said she had to lie to Maisie to bring her to him.  That he could save her.  He wasn't sure if he could, but he needed to know what the Mummy looked like and see it for himself.  Also that sometimes you have to lie to do what is needed.

Inside Perkins inspects the TARDIS saying some of the drives need work and it's a long job, the Doctor replying if he knows anyone.  So Gus got away after he blew up the train, any thoughts on who Gus could be perhaps Perkins, the chief engineer himself.  Especially the names of the ships that Clara and Maisie found info on, like the Gloriana.  Maybe one reason why he blew up the train, so no one found what was on there.  Clara calls Danny or he calls and asks if it's over.  She says it is and has a change of heart telling him she doesn't want to leave him cos it was Danny who wanted her to leave, but now he's okay with it.  Who's lying now?  As well as the Doctor telling Clara at the beginning that she's sad and smiling all at once, "it's a smile, but it's sad, it's like two different emotions at once.  It's like you're malfunctioning!"  Well she was in a way wasn't she.  She didn't really know if she wanted to stay or to leave him, especially since he said she wouldn't see him again. Thinking she may not go knocking around with him, but he'll be over for dinner!  Yes dinner, can you picture him at dinner. Not likely with this Doctor.  He didn't mean Clara was literally malfunctioning did he?

Though can't help but see there was a little bit of something going on between these two, in terms of him not wanting her to leave and how she was in two minds about leaving too.  Thus the "two different emotions at once."  Unless it was different emotions between those for Danny and those for the Doctor.  Thought there wasn't going to be any of that this time round.  You know flirtatious comments and the like.  They just having them tip toe around each other as far as her feelings for the Doctor are concerned and boy did Clara have feelings for the Doctor.  At least for Doctor Eleven (Matt Smith) and she can't just turn them off like that, even if he has a different face.  Still same old Doctor.  However think this is getting a bit digressive of me! ha.

Coincidence that the Mummy happened to be a soldier at that, after the Doctor going on about hating soldiers and how ancient technology kept the Mummy here.  We've been coming across soldiers being mentioned for a while now and his dislike of them.  Yet he manages to take this one down too. It just seemed so anti-climactic that the Mummy had to be a soldier.  Is this why those marked for death couldn't bargain with it.  He/It was on a mission and well, soldiers aren't meant to be 'bribed' by people for their lives or even save people, not when you really think about it.  One reason why Danny didn't want to be a soldier anymore.  Not to mention the misconception's that come with the territory.

Harkback here to The Unicorn and the Wasp of course, the Agatha Christie inspired ep but also the "are you my mummy" line was a throwback to The Empty Child ep, but still it sounded funny when the Doctor said it at that moment.  As well as shades of Midnight here, when the Tenth Doctor (David Tennent) and Donna (Catherine Tate) found themselves on that shuttle.

Think this is the most I've written for an ep this series!