Doctor Who 10.11 "World Enough and Time" Review

                                             
The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) Nardole (Matt Lucas) Missy (Michelle Gomez) and Bill (Pearl Mackie) end up on a ship which appears to be abandoned and the Doctor lets Missy 'investigate' it with Nardole and Bill.  Sure there'd be plenty of objections about that from Nardole, I mean she can't be trusted and he doesn't trust her.  The Doctor remains inside the TARDIS eating some crisps and she doesn't like him doing that; and they find a blue inhabitant (as seen int he episode Oxygen) on the screen and he's coming for them. He is Jorj (Oliver Lansley)and he states one of them is human. Nardole comments he's blue and he used to be blue once.  As in colour or just plain, blue, sorry!  He asks which one is human since the lift is moving and they're coming to get whoever is human.  The Doctor comes out and he doesn't reply.  But Bill admits it's her.  Yet again Bill Potts bumbling her way into more crisis and trouble for the Doctor.

But before all this, Missy talks about the Doctor and how they grew up together.  How the Doctor's name is Doctor Who.  People ask him his name and he says, "Doctor" and they ask "Who?"  They ask if that's really his name.  It's a name that the Doctor took cos he liked it.  It's just Doctor.  Getting back to current events, Jorj shoots Bill and she finds a gaping hole straight through her heart.  As the Doctor and Bill have a flashback to Bill cooking and cutting chips.  With Nardole teasing her.  She and the doctor eat chips on the roof of the building and speak about his name and his home.  How Missy could be a man, used to be a man and how they're more advanced than humans when it comes to gender acceptance.  Accepting both men and women.  Bill adding that he won't let her die, even just a little bit.  Which echoes into the events on the ship.

Life form without faces come out of the lift with a gurney saying they can repair her and take her away.  The Doctor communicates with Bill telepathically telling her to, "wait for me" through the lift doors. Jorj explains they're not the colony, it's a colony ship but no one was on board yet.  There was a crew of 50 who were making the ship habitable and were sent down to the planet to survey it. About 20 didn't come back.  Nardole pulls up the data and says there are many life forms on the ship. The Doctor also mentions they're in a black hole.  The bottom of the ship is moving quicker in time than the top which is being slowed down due to the black hole and gravitational pull, he also explains about gravity, which Jorj doesn't understand, he's just a janitor.

Bill wakes up on the operating table with  a large box in place of her heart.  She must recover.  She sees the Doctor telling her to wait for him.  As another man comes in and tells her she needs to recover.  Bill leaves the room and finds two doors, one saying 'in' the other 'out.'  As she walks in the door, she can hear a faceless figure saying "pain" over and over.  He's in pain.  A nurse comes in to help him and Bill hides.  But the long haired man spots her behind the curtain.  He leaves with the nurse and Bill turns down the volume on the faceless man.  The man takes her to his rooms and asks her to tea, does she want good tea or bad tea.  His name is Mr Razor.  He then shows her the others on the TV monitor and she says they're frozen.  He tells her this is happening now.  She's been here two weeks, months even but for them time has barely passed.  Hence the Doctor's references to time.

She says the Doctor's got a sarcastic face there and also he's raising an eyebrow later on, which means he's saying something funny.  The man tells her he'll be doing that for a long while yet, a week.  The nurse takes her to mop the floors cos it's her job.  She can't leave the hospital or her heart will stop functioning.  Razor takes her outside to explore and she can't even open the window without the faceless men getting agitated or menacing.  Razor shows her the last surviving humans, who will soon be dead and the masked ones are their children, the best of the lot.  They will all be converted soon and when he said that of course you'd have to think of , "you will be assimilated."  As we all know they're Cybermen and that Razor is actually disguised,

The Doctor seizes the chance to take out Jorj, being frozen for a while before he falls to the floor and waits for the lift to arrive.  As Razor takes Bill by tricking her back to the doctor who operated on her and tells her she will become one of them too, since sooner or later her heart will eventually cease. The Doctor and the others come across a computer and he tells Missy to access it.  Of course Nardole wanted to do it but the Doctor tells him she's better at it.  He takes Nardole with him to find Bill. Razor comes across Missy and she tells him to stay three feet away or she will kill him, not liking people to sneak up on her.  She can be evil.  Like accosting Jorj with her umbrella.  Nardole and the Doctor come across the newly formed Cyberman as the Doctor realizes who it is, a Mondasian Cyberman, the same time Missy finds that the ship was on the planet Mondas.  The Doctor asks about the location of Bill since he's newly formed and they have one consciousness.  The Cyberman replies, "I waited for you."  As we see inside the eye socket to Bill's eye, as she cries.
Razor losing his disguise and revealing himself to be the former PM, the Master (John Simm) ...and the regeneration begins next episode...

Spoilers aside with everyone knowing that the Cybermen were on their way as was the Master, this penultimate episode as Peter's stint as the Doctor sets up not only his most feared enemies, but also the Master too.  Seems they won't be getting the TARDIS to turn back time for Bill to be saved and for the Doctor to change what has happened, since we know he will have to get regenerated.  But as he asks for help from Missy in the next episode, was a touching scene, or will be when we get to see it.  Also how Nardole in this episode comments how the Doctor is showing motion and wants to take a selfie with him.

Will the Doctor kick himself for giving Bill the chance to help him test Missy on a colony ship which is sending out a distress call (don't they always) or rather it appeared to be more of a lure didn't it. Since Bill doesn't want to get killed, but no sooner did she utter those words the inevitable happened and fate stepped in to mar what was meant to be Missy's test of loyalty, ultimate test, who knows (no pun!)  Mr Razor the so-called orderly did appear rather Lord of the Rings like didn't he. Coincidentally he just happened to be around.  That colony ship was so blooming long though and was also bullet-shaped too.

This was a little Clara-esque when she was stuck inside the Dalek, 'the Impossible Girl.'  Now Bill as a 'Cyberman' or should that be 'Cyberchick,' it's all relative.  Those faceless men remained me of Alfred  Hitchcock's Spellbound, when Dr Edwardes (Gregory Peck) tells the dream he's been having to Ingrid Bergman's Dr Constance Peters.  Razor aka The Master must have been enjoying taking Bill in and manipulating her to finally becoming one of the Cybermen, knowing how that would affect the Doctor.  The Mondasian Cybermen appeared in William Hartnell's First Doctor story, The Tenth Planet.   The Master called it Genesis, as they were converted from their flesh to their metallic state to get to the top and take over the ship and were meant to have evolved.  Evolution taking an eternity practically.  The head gear would not only stop them feeling pain, but only not being bothered about it.

Missy was on top form as usual as she referred to Nardole as Comic Relief and to Bill as Exposition. Referring to Jorj as a Smurf and allusions to spanking, as well as replying "don't be a bitch" when he asks if she's human.

This episode had it all, humour or should I say Comic Relief to coin Missy, as well as the darkness overshadowing Bill's fate and the Doctor wanting her to wait for him.  She waited as long as she could and eventually fell prey to the Master and his dirty, evil tricks.
The title alludes to Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress, "had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime..."

Bruce Greenwood Dirty Dancing Still Impressing Us...

                                                      
Bruce Greenwood's Metro UK interview on Dirty Dancing was revealing to say the least.  As was his portrayal of Dr Jake Housman, okay that wasn't revealing cos we all know the legend that is Bruce, or at least he will be by the time I've finished with him.  Of course he is Bruce and can do no wrong. But he is still so very underrated!

Whether you loved the remake/reboot/whatever you want to describe it as such, he never let the production down and his singing once again was marvellous!  His rendition of They Can't Take That Away From Me was sublime and he sounded 30 years younger there.  Yeah let me use his use of the '30 years' reference!

See here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEObe7c9b60

The song was sung by Fred Astaire to Ginger Rogers in Shall We Dance (1937)

Anyway returning to his interview, "there was a scene with me and a piano.  A love scene with me on a  piano!"  As peoples' imaginations run riot!  But he admits he isn't a piano player and had to learn
the chords. What came as a surprise to me (yes as much as I know everything about him, there are some things that still allude me) was that Bruce isn't a piano player.  As well as how "I spent a long time trying to figure out what those inversions are and I don't read music."
Again that's a surprise as he's such a versatile guitar player, thought he'd be all into that.  Plus I confess I sent him some music last year so he must've thought, "Mila what???!!! were you thinking??!!"  Heck I was even going to give him some lyrics I've written and get, okay, not so much get, as ask him to put them to some from of musical refrain or chorus.   More fool me!! Ha.  Maybe I'll send those out this year anyway on his birthday on 12 August

Hey that's why the next book, volume 2 will be compiled with his input and help.  Not yet of course, let's give him time to get more accolades under his belt!

Bruce: "...ultimately I figured out what the changes were and they stayed on my fingers long enough to know that, 'okay it looks like he can play.'"
Adding, "I would have given anything to have another song.  Absolutely" and so would we have, maybe sold a few souls!!  One song was just plain mean, irrespective of whether you liked the version or not!

https://www.amazon.com/Essentially-Bruce-Greenwood-Actor-Musician/dp/1326589091/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1498006110&sr=8-9&keywords=mila+hasan

Doctor Who 10.10 "The Eaters of Light" Review

                                              
Present day Scotland: The Cairns
A boy tells a little girl to hurry up and come as she runs amongst some stone ruins.

The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and the others land in Scotland of 2AD as Bill (Pearl Mackie) loved the Romans and has read every single book about them.  She wants to show that the Ninth Roman Army didn't go missing but are still here.  The Doctor is meant to be guarding the vault still and Nardole (Matt Lucas) says they shouldn't even be here.  He hasn't even changed from his pyjamas. She says the army is somewhere by the river cos that's the route they'd always take, by the river.  He tells her to search it out as he and Nardole go the other way.  There's a drawing of the TARDIS on one of the stones along with other drawings and markings and Nardole notices the crow on the stone as he calls out "Doctor."  The crow that is.  The Doctor tells him that crow used to speak and are just sulking.  Nardole replies they don't speak in the future and he says they do, all crows speak.  Yeah watch Alfred Hitchock's The Birds.  ha.

But being in Aberdeenshire he told Bill, "I lived in  Roman Britain, I've governed, farmed, juggled, been a Vestal Virgin second class."  Nardole questioning on only "second class."  To which he adds "it's along story."

Bill spots a girl saying goodbye to her mother and everyone who died by a fire and she chases Bill . Bill falling down another hole again.  Here she finds a Roman centurion (but that Roman centurion was so Rory and always will be, when he guarded the Pandorica!  Just like the doctor guarding the vault. Which I said before.)
She can communicate with the Roman who says she's peaking Latin, but she's peaking English and vice versa.  It must be the Doctor and some telepathic mind control thing.  He say they all died out underground as there's a creature out there.  With the Doctor and Nardole also coming across the dead body, which doesn't have any bones.  The Doctor explains it's a result of not enough sun, but the decay takes years, this was sudden.  Nardole had to get in, "death by Scotland."

Bill and the centurion climb out of the hole and he's taken by the creature, well he had to be token extra.  She sees a cave as it comes after her and finds the last of the surviving Ninth army.  She's been hit with black slime and faints.  When she wakes up, he tells her to sit in the sun as it wears off.  He's Lucius (Brian Vernel) and he puts his hand on her knee.  Giving her food.  She explains she doesn't like men in that way and though she's primitive, he says that some of them are like that too.  But he likes everyone, both men and women, so he's ordinary.  Cornelius (Billy Matthews) complains about the food being scarce.  Isn't it always.  They can be friends however.  Peter played a character also called Lucius in the 2008 Doctor Who episode, The Fires of Pompeii.

The Doctor and Nardole are taken prisoner by the tribe and Nardole offers them popcorn.  He can make some if they like and the Doctor takes the bag from him.  Said he should throw it in the fire.  As they make their escape.  Kar (Rebecca Benson) tells them she's the leader and there was a great battle with the Romans and everyone died.  She's the gatekeeper and must keep the creature away.  The Doctor goes into the cave and sees there are many more out there kept out only by the light.  They feed and are getting stronger and soon will invade the entire solar system.  He's been gone a short while but Nardole tells him it's been two days.  Nardole tells them stories of the Mary Celeste and has markings on his face now.

Bill tells them she must find her friend and he can help them.  Lucius is the eldest and is called 'Granddad' by the others even if he's only 18.  They can stay here and die or they can come with her even if she can't promise them they won't die.  As the creature takes another one of them, they uncover a trap door and meet with the Doctor and the others.  The Doctor tells them they need to grow up and cos of Kar protecting a muddy bit of hillside she caused all those people to die.  As she tells her sob story of the Romans invading and looting and killing.  As they prepare to fight each other again, Bill tells them to stop as they need to fight the creature.  In a repeat of last ep, she becomes the voice of reason to stop the fighting, along with the Doctor.  Who had fun calling them children just face painting.

As the creature approaches, they catch him and they fight him off with their so called prism type mirrors and hold it off until the sunlight, until they drive it into the cave.  The Doctor's the only one who can hold it off for years and not age.  Bill tells them it's not his fight and they must do it, as Kar says it's her fight as a gatekeeper.  Lucius tells her she's not alone and they will fight too, as will the other centurions, entering the cave.  Her brother tells her he'll draw about her an everyone will remember her name.  They head to the TARDIS and Bill tells him he can't fight for everyone, some fights he has to give up.

Inside they find Missy (Michelle Gomez) reading, she's been doing some work for him.  She can't access the TARDIS or get out so it's like being in the vault.  Bill's angry as is Nardole since she's doing chores for him now.  He talks about music and how that's all that lasts.  As Bill thought she could hear music but they're in the past.  Missy hears the music and cries and she asks why she's feeling like this.  She gets hold of his hand and he let's it go.  As she says that they're friends.  The Doctor being more realistic, "that's the trouble with hope, it's hard to resist."  Though he did mention regeneration since if he was hurt by the creatures in any way he's able to do that.  More hint dropping no doubt.  Next ep the Master returns.

Doctor Who 10.9 "Empress of Mars" Review

                                              
This time round the trio find themselves at NASA, as they launch the probe in its poles and they're asked what they're doing here.  Bill (Pearl Mackie) asking if the man in the photo is Neil Armstrong. The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) shows them his ID and then finds the message 'God Save The Queen' written on the surface of Mars.  Mars has graffiti artists perhaps?  Naturally this intrigues him, but as is the case, he must go there (even though he knows the outcome.)  They wear spacesuits and Nardole  (Matt Lucas) finds the burning fire and takes off his helmet as it's a breathable atmosphere with oxygen, which the Doctor remarks could still have been dangerous.  As Bill explores she falls down a hole, well nothing new for her.  She would be the one to get herself into trouble.  The Doctor tells Nardole to get ropes from the TARDIS, er, wouldn't it have been easier to just take the TARDIS there.  But no, as no sooner does Nardole step in to it, that it vanishes.  Hey get the feeling the TARDIS wanted to get back home and lead him to Missy (Michelle Gomez) to get her out of her prison for some reason (to help or hinder the Doctor eventually?)  Not for the sake of it, it was as though she got inside its mind.

Hey just as I said wooden door and he hasn't used the Sonic, the Doctor says it too, couldn't he just make a hole in the rock, or how about that blue light you could see there.  Another one of those eps where the Doctor must rescue the natives, the Brits again, this time on Mars and try and talk some sense into them about peace and not being gung ho.  But the Victorians were not into peace.  As Bill says to the Colonel Godsacre (Anthony calf) his named sounded like 'God forsaker,' 'forsaken') she's a woman and yes women were in the police cos he couldn't believe it with his Victorian attitude which Bill finds sexist, even if he really is a Victorian and they were like that.

The Doctor finds himself confronted by the reptilian and a snooty Brit officer known as Catchlove (Ferdinand Kingsley) and he takes them to their leader, where they share tea, even if supplies are low. Bill being asked if she prefers Chinese or Indian, what take away?!  Ha.  The reptilian is their Man Friday and the look on Bill's face kind of said it all.  Yeah as we know Friday was black and a manservant in the same way this alien was used too, no matter they did save his life when he was stuck in his cryogenic pod.  And they got access to the Gargantua and he promised them riches.  Of course the Doctor knows who the reptilian is and knew his ulterior motive was to get back here for the rest of his kind and he's not the last of them as they think.

The soldiers fire and unearth the tomb but the Doctor warns them against meddling with it as they'll awaken the others.  Of course one wouldn't listen and goes ahead and opens it.  Awakening the Ice Queen.  And experiences her wrath firsthand.  When he gets neatly wrapped up in a package! Well it was funny.  The photo of Queen Victoria hanging in the cave.  Also how one soldier talks of his Alice and how they'll be married when he gets back and he doesn't want to see red again.  Too late cos he's also thrown at the Ice Queen (Adele Lynch) by Catchlove.  Who was rather bigoted and takes over command.  He tells them about Godsacre and how he was hanged for desertion but they couldn't get it right and he survived.  So as was the case, he was sent here to lead this 'expedition' as a disgrace and never expected to return.

The Doctor tries to negotiate on their behalf with Catchlove defying Godsacre's orders at every possible turn and begs for mercy for them.  After one of the soldiers shoots at her.  She's not one for mercy but promises them a quick death.  Catchlove mans the gun again and Bill stops him by turning it the other way and it promptly causes a cave-in.  Which lets he Queen awaken the other warriors who burrow through the ground.  With Man Friday letting them out since they need the Doctor to make peace.  Godsacre runs away cos he's a coward and Catchlove holds her hostage attempting to leave in the lift with her.  Bill causes a distraction wanting to talk woman to woman as she valued her opinion before and says she can stop this. Godsacre returns in the lift and shoots Catchlove for being a mutineer and he wants her to kill him for desertion and being a coward.  However she says that he wasn't a coward and she will make sure he does die one day but not today.  He will die in battle.

The Doctor sends out a message so they can be rescued by any ship in the area as Mars is dead and they get a message from Alpha Centauri (Ysanne Churchman).  They need the planet marked so they know where to land.  Nardole meanwhile asks Missy for help with the TARDIS and she agrees to it but it will be easier for her to show him.  Now for someone who didn't want her out of the prison and was adamant the Doctor should guard her, he had a change of tune, even if it was to return to him.

As Bill and the Doctor get to the surface of the planet, they leave markings on the surface reading, "God Save the Queen" in reference to the Ice Queen of course and the Doctor, as said knew this all along.  As he tells Godsacre his actions will be remembered by everyone one day.  A rather change of pace in a Mark Gatiss episode and film references galore.

Films mentioned: The Terminator which the Doctor hasn't time for since he's very busy. But puts it on his list when she mentions it has killer robots and killer accents!! ha. "I'll be back" as the Doctor always returns!
The Thing having similar caves and he'd have liked that too.
The Viking's where he had his eye gashed out stopping short in her tracks when she notice's Friday's face.
Frozen when the Doctor says he can use the Gargantua and make the ice fall on top of them leaving them in a frozen land.
Films I thought of and could've mentioned were Carry On Screaming with the Ice Queen's 'tomb, very Rubber Titi. "Frying tonight!"  Carry On Up The Khyber very Brit army orientated and the time of the British Empire.  Then the Ice Warrior reptilian, Friday reminded me of the Robomen in the Dalek's film with Bernard Cribbins.  Dalek's Invasion Earth:2015 AD.  (We're past that year now!) Heck they could've had him in this!  As well as Zulu (it was the uniforms!) and how they fought, like they did in the film with the Ice Queen here.  The Ice Queen was rather Spider-woman looking hat ep???  Also Mutiny on the Bounty or as I called it, 'Mutiny on Mars.'

With an allusion to the Tomb of the Cybermen thrown into one scene.  The Doctor adding it's "a simple choice, we must live together or die together."  Of course the belligerent Irxxa would choose to die, they were warriors after all.  Though asking for a female perspective was refreshing to see.   As was Iraxxa's appropriate reference to the soldiers as "pink skinned" and "fleshy worms."  Yes highly apt for Catchlove (no love in his 'eart!) not really a soldier but only in it for the spoils of war (or peace, but mainly war.)  Pauline Collins played Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw (2006) ep. Funnily Ferdinand Kingsley (son of Sir Ben Kingsley who played Mahatma 'get the Brits out of India' Ghandi!! ) As Ferdinand played the chef, Francatelli in ITV's Victoria series.  Alpha Centauri appeared in The Curse of Peladon (1972) and The Monster of Peladon (1974) from Jon Pertwee's era.

And by gum if we don't get Missy being cryptic again asking the Doctor if he's okay, regeneration, or did she suspect something amiss about him for some reason, whatever, the Doctor seemed puzzled or was trying to conceal something...

Doctor Who 10.8 "The Lie of the Land" Review

                                       
Another narration from the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) about the Monks.
"The Monks have been with us from the beginning. They shepherded humanity through its formative years, gently guiding and encouraging like a parent clapping their hands at a baby's first steps.  They have been instrumental in all the advances of culture and technology.  They watched proudly as man invented the lightbulb, the telephone and the Internet.  They were even there to welcome the first men on the moon.  And they have defended us too.  Who can forget the time the Monks defeated the Daleks the Cybermen, the Weeping Angels.  Two species sharing a history as happily as they share a planet.  Humanity and the Monks are a blissful perfect partnership.  How lucky Earth is to have an ally as powerful and tender as the Monks, that asks for nothing in return for their benevolence but obedience."  How very political with the election coming up!!

As they take over the world with the lies of being here for years and helping the humans during war etc, as well as brainwashing the gullible humans into believing the lies.  As a woman is taken away from her family for claiming the truth: that the Monks only just arrived.  Wearing identical overalls like a uniform out of 1984. Which in part this episode was an allusion to.  Bill (Pearl Mackie) is a part of this world order and she sits drinking tea and telling her mother how it's not true and that the Monks have only been here a while. She sees the Doctor on TV on the side of the Monks and knows that he's just pretending until he can make his move.  Of course she is right and we know that too.  What happens next is Nardole (Matt Lucas) returning to the flat and her mother disappears.  She's relieved to see him and he says he's been out of action for six weeks since he was struck down by the bacteria.  If he was human he would've been dead.  She asks him questions to ensure he is really Nardole and not brainwashed.  He says it is him and she tells him she's been speaking with her mother as she always talks to her.  He tells her of his imaginary friend, who left him eventually.

He knows the location of the Doctor since he's been using some tracking technology device from the TARDIS and is on a hulk boat just off Scotland.  They find a way to infiltrate the boat since it gets supplies every six weeks which just happens to be now.  A man takes them across since he hates the Monks.  Just as their ID is about to be checked and Nardole doesn't have any and hers is just Uni kitchen staff, a light appears and a Monk arrives.  He looks at them and then walks off.  They break away and find the Doctor, who summons the Monks, but Bill is shocked.  He tells her she shouldn't have given her consent and should've listened to him.  He didn't ask for his sight back.  Bill grabs a gun and she shoots the Doctor and he begins regenerating.  Okay some kudos for making us believe he is actually beginning the regeneration process since the Doctor made it look so real.  Or maybe just getting us in the right frame of mind for a future regeneration.

He wanted to make sure she wasn't brainwashed either and they weren't in her thoughts.  As she asked him about the big fish in the Seine.  Course you can't fool the Doctor as he says it was the Thames and he was held prisoner here for six months.  The soldiers are also on his side and he and Nardole laugh about it when he asks if the regeneration was a bit too much.  They need to get rid of the Monks as they've taken over the world and there's only one person he knows who's as intelligent as him, or almost.  That being Missy (Michelle Gomez).

He opens the vault and takes Bill.  She plays piano but is bored and is trying to be good.  He asks her about the Monks and she has defeated them before.  He tells Bill she's one of the last of the Time Lords.  She makes him guess how this can be achieved.  Then she says the link was implanted for years through a bloodline and the only way to end it is to end the line so that it can't be passed down. Kill one to save many.  Something the Doctor won't condone.  This being Bill who needs to be killed. She's ready to accept her fate but the Doctor isn't.  Also Missy being ruthless, still doesn't show signs of being on her way to being rehabilitated good.  However it's clear Missy is there for a far greater purpose than just the Monks and that's probably the appearance of the Master.

They tell Nardole of this too and he says they'll put a "pin in for now."  The Doctor thinks the Monk's cathedral might hold the answers and he takes the soldiers with them to raid the pyramid.   (Only Cardinal Richelieu would think of the cathedral re The Musketeers! ha). As Nardole points out no Monk is guarding the entrance.  Precisely since there aren't that many of them.  Bill records  a message for the soldiers so that they can't be brainwashed again, telling them that this isn't real.  The Monks have only just arrived.  Inside they're met by some Monks who managed to destroy some soldiers.  As one has his recorder destroyed and holds a gun on them.  Nardole knocks him out with his 'neck pinch' an obvious allusion to Spock's Vulcan grip.  As well as the second allusion to Star Trek again as Bill asked Nardole about the sound the doors make.  His "shuk-shuk" sound.  Nardole also explaining how he learned that neck pinch but he can't do it with his left hand, this not being his real hand.

The Doctor tells them "it's fake news."  Highly topical as we also get a picture of  'the orange one' on the screen.  The Doctor tries to get into the head of the Monk and the Monk's images begin to disappear, but they're too powerful and he's knocked out.  When he wakes up Bill tells him she could've done this already but she wanted to say goodbye to him.  He tries to undo his ties and she tries to overpower the Monk, but she doesn't get anywhere either, not until she recalls her mother. The Doctor encourages her to keep remembering her mother.  A pure image that goes beyond the Monks invasion. As people begin to remember and the Monks face a losing battle.  As normality returns, the Doctor and Bill share a cup of tea, at least she does and the Monk's statues are no more.  (Must strike a pose akin to the Monks in a photo!  Ha.)  The Doctor asks a girl about the plinth and she thinks they were making a film here.  The Doctor tells Bill he wants her three thousand word essay on free will. Well she shouldn't have reminded him of it, not that he'd have forgotten.

Missy is in tears as she recalls how many people she killed and she's not quite ready to be good. Finally the Monks were defeated!! Cos these episodes went on a bit.  The Doctor having a reason for giving Bill photos of her mother (was she really her mother?) which turned out to be a timely piece of foreshadowing.  The Doctor stressing how no one learnt from history.  Now all memories of the Monks have been erased and there's no way to learn from history now, when it didn't exist in the minds of the billions.  However he's always around to protect humanity.  Now if only we had a Doctor in real life!!

Yet the Doctor joining the Monks, even for the briefest of minuscule moments for real, the briefest being the operative word, would've been something to watch for more than a few minutes.   But it wasn't to be, he was their prisoner for six months.  How did they manage to get hold of the Doctor and that prison hulk/ship, whatever, was so reminiscent of Sherlock, where Eurus was being held.  As well as Missy being held in a similar glass prison of sorts!  At least she has her piano!  And not any appearance of the TARDIS this ep which he could've used to get into the pyramid - no?

Ghosts of Shepherdstown Season 1 All 6 Episodes Review

                                                        

1.1 Welcome to America's Most Haunted Town.

The haunting at the bakery/sweetshop, was a meeting of the minds: the investigators and getting to grips with what was actually happening and what they were dealing with.

Elizabeth almost fainting from the powerful energy - something dark and Nick picks up on the EMF spiking.

The local town historian, Dana commenting on German Street and Queen Street.  New also was plotting the activity on the map.  The bakery window where they threw out the body parts, where Elizabeth felt the presence, which was a hospital during the Civil War.  The safe omitting EMF energy.  The sound Elizabeth heard by the safe was audible, as if the safe was willing itself to be opened.  I enjoyed how they drove around in their truck: like a Paranormal S.W.A.T team, 'yeah we're on the case.'

There was someone breathing or sighing which Elizabeth heard, at 24.22 minutes.  Finding the shoe in the safe which was used to ward off and protect against witchcraft and evil entities. The voice recorder that Nick used and the questions he and Bill asked and to Bill's question of, "what Unit were you a part of?"  Sounds to me like it says 'First Battalion', rather more than "take the medicine." They wouldn't really have had medicine if any, around then and supplies would've been scarce.   But the EVP is more relevant.  As Lorie found in the basement that the man was a Major Alexander Tinsley and Chief of Surgery and they found the saw there too.  The Major wanting forgiveness for not being able to save the soldiers.  The EVP doesn't say anything about the saw as no ‘s’ sound comes through.  Megan resembled the woman Alexander loved.  It's so helpful to their investigation and cause when they find photographs of people who lived through the period too; further authenticating what someone looked like or their reason for being there still in spirit form.

Nick feels if they had the Civil War re-enactment they could honour him and thereby put him to rest and acknowledge him.  Nick coming up with the ideas to help these spirits find peace.

1.2 Do You Know You're Dead?

Nicole, who lived on the college campus housing heard a girl in the hallway and thinks she took her glasses, with reported poltergeist activity in the home.  As they found a collection of objects in the basement.   As well as salt lines which were keeping something evil in or out.  Then there was the shower turning on.

Next time they need their own handheld cameras, or the Go-Pros on their head, cos we don't want to see their faces every second, it's their surroundings and what they're seeing we need to experience too.  As for the rocking chair moving, there's not much to tell with that, that's not really exciting or connected to anything, which is why no one made a big deal out of it.  That sort of activity has been encountered many times before anyway. There was documented poltergeist activity anyway.

Nick finds they teach a paranormal class at the university and saw students carrying out spirit board sessions.  Which is scary in itself cos they really don't know what they're messing with and shouldn't be able to do this.  They don't need encouragement.  Even the most seasoned investigators shy away from this, including Nick.  As well as finding many suicides and hangings amongst the students, like the nurse and an exorcism in one of the halls.  A girl in a dress was reported to be stealing things at the university.

The EVP girl's voice at 20 minutes sounds like she's saying, "something, getting ready."  Nick does suggest using the spirit board but warns against it cos of the negative energy attaching itself. Elizabeth does this with Lorie and Nicole.

Lorie senses water (see later episodes as this was a key element running through the eps and the connection.)

The spirit board comes through with the name "Anne."  "Water" comes through after asking what happened to her and there was a flood in the house and she perhaps doesn't know that she's dead...

They search the gravestone with Dana and Nicole finds the fallen gravestone with 1879-1889. Elizabeth thinks they should have a ceremony to guide her home and help her move on.  Wonder if that EVP of the girl's voice was significant in the sense she was getting ready to move on and that she would be helped to do this by Nicole finding the gravestone and Elizabeth with the ceremony.

Not forgetting the thunderstorm now when Nicole felt suffocated in her home again and all the cameras when everything died.

At 43.00 sounds to me like it's saying "...trying to kill you."  Since Anne has left the house after the ceremony; there must be something more sinister there, as why would Anne try to suffocate Nicole, with her asking,      "why are you visiting?"

"Still in the room with us?"  

Answer: "yes."  As for the ‘killing’ part, was this a future warning?

Note these are my opinions and comments only gathered from what I watched and observed.

1.3 She Didn't Have A face

West German Street, near German Street where the bakery was in 1.1.  At least the police were more open to such activity in this town instead of just dismissing it.

Elizabeth sniffs the smell in the front room and experiences the ceiling falling down near the stairs, which we missed on camera, that's why they need their own cameras.  They as investigators, will know exactly what to film and what to document.  Cos they need to focus on the location and surroundings and less on their faces.  Elizabeth senses a child in the attic.

Dana finds out about the Snyder’s and Barry Snyder was a newspaper owner.  The horse carriage that his wife, Laura Ida was on, had an accident and her daughter was Ray Ray.  That decapitation was more than an accident - get the feeling Laura was pushed off the carriage.  She hit her head on the ground and died in the house.  The second photo Elizabeth shows the others looks like a woman from a distance.  Lots of the cases, such as the last two, concentrated on and led to the discovery of a child and shoe.  Nick tells them Laura was with her daughter when the 'accident' happened.

That doesn't appear to be a coincidence. [I just thought of the faceless woman I saw!  Yikees!   Briefly as I tweeted Elizabeth: "few summer’s ago someone rang bell 2am twice, told them to stop, looked like woman without face when she stared back. Scary!"]

The great grandson of Laura has Ray Ray's journal and she was 12 at the time, as well as being a psychic.  In the journal where she wrote that, "death was looking over my shoulder...I got it out of the house but not away from my family."  Meaning she managed to keep it away from the house but couldn't keep it away outside. She closed all the doors and windows and felt "death following me all summer."  Like Harry and Susan in 1.4.

Could that "killing" EVP from 1.2 be relevant here in reference to "death following" and got its hands on her mother.  Such an eerie feeling though and I only said that since all of the cases were related in some form or another.

Nick again feels they need to guide Ray Ray to her mother so they can move on.  Why the activity was increasing now was just one in a series of questions.

There was that orb behind Elizabeth in the window reflection that came from her head causing her anxiety, trouble forming sentences too and pressure on her chest.  Upstairs in the attic, there are also two orbs seen either side of Nick and Elizabeth, almost as if one was chasing the other. Or as Ray Ray wrote, "following her..."

This episode affected Elizabeth a lot emotionally and also cos of Ray Ray and her heartbreak over losing her mother after having to pitch a battle against death but couldn't keep her mother safe.

     

They also find the shutters were moved in the downstairs window, which was opened and now halfway closed and catch it on video. There also appears to be a shadow on the wall and it doesn't appear to be light from the outside, just before the shutter closes and isn't a car light.  

Lorie senses a negative entity over the entire town also in reference to Ray Ray's mother and the voice in the attic telling them to "get out."  As well as the rain contributing to heightened activity and as I said, one orb seemed to be chasing the other around the attic...

Dana discovers that Laura fractured her skull, broke her neck and ruptured a blood vessel.  See I don't think it was an accident.  Elizabeth also picked up on Ray Ray's eyes, like we did.  They looked so haunted.

1.4 Grave Stalker

A gunshot is heard near the clock tower.  Nick with his investigative notebook and Elizabeth had one too, making them look very investigative!  Ha. Cari hears a woman cry and a gunshot and has a feeling of being followed.  Cari being the only one who heard it.  Elizabeth uses her pendulum to sense energy.  If the answers are a 'no' then there's circular movement, 'yes' is a straight line and if the answer is ‘unclear’ then it won't move.  Once again they find themselves near the river and Elizabeth commenting it's a spiritual conductor.  The bridge overlooks the town run; she senses energy from the wall.  Nick's compass spins on the wall instead of finding a direction and stopping movement.   The EMF also spikes up to 19.

Dana tells them Thomas Shepherd built the fort and the wall is a remnant of the fort.  Love the board stringing, relevant for solving clues. Paranormal CSI.  [Sorry.]   The wall seems to have an energy vortex which Nick feels is kicking up activity across the town.

There was Prospect Street and the student housing.  Then the train tracks where they followed the activity to, the EMF leading them here. That figure by the rock was creepy almost as if it was dragging something.   They are led to a house which was built in the 1890's and is haunted.  Dabney Chapman, the owner, tells them of a young woman Susie Farrell, was who walking with a friend and saw a man she knew, Harry Smoots.  (Dabney sadly passed away later after filming. RIP.)  Elizabeth and her notebook too!  She has a sinking feeling inside the house, falling off her feet as Susie was brought into the house as well.  She would've had that feeling when she was shot, though it was outside. Nick hears a female cry on the EVP, which wasn't played back for the audience!!

Cari is being stalked and they think it's Harry.  Elizabeth gets cold spots at Cari's house where she saw a man in the window.  Also they get an EVP reply, "don't ask the question."  Elizabeth outraged and warning the spirit to not touch her without her permission.  

Dana says Harry had mental problems and he OD-ed on morphine.  The library used to be a jail and Elizabeth said Cari was by the library.  The photo Elizabeth took with her camera (again on my Twitter and below) and is also explained there: where you can see a bearded man and a woman.  Susie was shot by Harry, explaining the gun shot heard and Susie died in what was now, Dabney's house.

                                       

Dana also mentions the figure at the train tracks and about being thrown in front of the train, which is what Harry tried to do?  Nick feels it was residual energy leading them there and then to the town. To Dabney's house.  Dana mentions circling the tracks and back to town in the same route over and over. Nick refers to it as, "his hell - his dark energy is still out there."   There's a man in the photo Elizabeth took over Lorie's shoulder with a beard and she uses a sage ritual to get rid of Cari's attachment. Elizabeth's photo (which I mentioned earlier) she thinks might have a light shutter speed issue, but you can definitely see faces there!  Nick talks of tracers, tracing the light sources and can cause blurriness.

Elizabeth questions why she saw a figure in the house and her dog barked, when Cari saw the man inside her house in the window when she was outside.  There must be another dark presence affecting the town as Lorie said in the previous episode.  Elizabeth accompanies Cari and her daughters to the river for a picnic, where the dog barks near the river.  Again more water activity.

1.5 It's Behind You

(September 2015)

A DB floating in the water is spotted, a woman with dark hair.  One of the Vic's was named Elizabeth.  

Nick saying, "Shepherdstown is a weird Twilight Zone of paranormal experiences."  The town run leading to the river and Nick was in hot pursuit of what he saw, something in the river, which vanished from the thermal camera and could be debris.

Lorie says the energy drew her to the river and there was an angry man in the water.  There's a splash and he was dumping a DB.  She sees a woman in the water, named 'Izzy or Lizzy'.  As well as another woman and the angry man has a scar on his face, shouting, "you little bitch."  He killed them. Elizabeth, yeah creepy with the same name.  (See next ep about the EVP saying 'Elizabeth' which I'm sure I heard; but don't know if it was in reference to this Elizabeth (Lizzie) who was murdered or in reference to our Elizabeth?)

The murdered girl's name was Mary Elizabeth and she was 18.  Shelby was the other one who was 16. Dana researches they were from Maryland, just as she is, from Dana's hometown of Beltsville. Clippings from 19 June 1956 and 1st June 1956, show they were picked up by a man in a car and Lorie had the sense it affected their throat.

Elizabeth has an IR case over her phone becoming a thermal camera when they go investigating in the woods.  Lorie says Shelby was killed first and Lizzie tried to get away.  They hear lightning and then what sounded like a tree falling or could be a body being dumped or falling too. Lizzie ran to the water.  

Nick heads off to check out the sounds in the woods at night.  They find an upside down cross on the rock which is a sign of evil witchcraft.   So they had rituals here.  Nick feels his body is in a whirlwind near the cross.  Nick has two figures surrounding him on the thermal (my Twitter pics again) in a dress, they definitely look female.  Nick runs off after a red light he sees and there's a figure behind him, as said.  As well as a woman touching Bill's shoulder causing him nausea and dizziness. Lorie adds they need to lay their spirits to rest and release them to the light.  It was so brave of Nick to go running off like that into the woods, as he always does and to be surrounded by the two figures, creepy still, even if they may have been Shelby and Lizzy.  Or could just as easily have been a witch or two.

             

Dana finds an article from 16 June 1956, mentioning a scar faced man and he was never arrested.  SO he got away with it and even in death he still appears to haunt this place.  That was sad that they didn't get justice for what happened to them and he just went free, perhaps to murder some more.  He doesn't even appear to have gotten his comeuppance in death either still lingering here.  But with the ceremony releasing Lizzy and Shelby hopefully he can't harm them anymore and make them re-live their pain over and over.

The upside down crosses perhaps something to do with the witch, see next ep and Nick was spot on with that connection.

Tweets to Elizabeth re ep 1.5:

Me: "you mentioned shutter speed, it may be matrixing.  I see man's face in your pic."

Elizabeth in reply: "I do see that.  It is interesting it happened at that moment because none of my pictures did that before or after. 25 July 2016

Me: Hope you get a S2 & if u do, get your own handheld cams!  Miss 2 much action and makes head spin with some filming! ha"

Elizabeth: "Haha yeah I hear yah!" 4 July 2016

1.6 Redemption

Princess Street near woods

Claire heard a baby crying in the basement.  The taps turned on, re the shower at the student housing in 1.2, what I said as well.  Elizabeth heard a woman and a baby crying, she was trying to be a mother.  The presence of the well remnants in the basement and she felt the woman had done something wrong.  Nick commented on how Elizabeth is the strongest in the whole group to experience or sense spirits.

The stringing on the map almost looked to be forming a pentagram: star shape and I emphasis almost. Who knows if that would've happened if they needed to, or had to continue with their investigation; if they hadn't found the connection and gone on for longer.

Elizabeth got a sense of remorse and Nick comes up with the witch reference again.  Elizabeth explaining the use of the Ghostbox and how it scans through frequencies.  She finds another shoe in the wall, the shoe find of the century! - But seriously another shoe: reaffirming the witch theory.

The female voice definitely says, "poison."  At 32.41 sounds like the voice says, "Elizabeth"?? and the high pitched screaming can also be heard at around 32.44 minutes.

They find the town run at the back of the house. It was alleged the woman poisoned the town children.  Lorie mentioned how in colonial times they accused a woman of witchcraft and poisoning the town's water supply.  However she wasn't a witch.  Claire reminded the woman of her own baby as she was pregnant.  Dana found there was an outbreak of dysentery and this caused the deaths of the children.  The water was contaminated from an unnatural source.

Elizabeth suggests a ceremony and Lorie feels a potency charm will release the woman and lift the curse.  Which they do.

Nine days later there's no reported activity.

Nick commented on how he's been investigating all his life and Shepherdstown isn't like anything he's seen before.

At the end of the ep, and as Elizabeth and I said in a tweet, why did they float the shoe on the river?