Ghosts of Shepherdstown Season 2.1 "Harper's Ferry"

Season 2 was always a must, on the cards and almost all fans and supporters of Ghosts of Shepherdstown wanted more and finally the calls were answered.  But as I tweeted the activity in Shepherdstown is no longer present and how the residents wouldn't want to be constantly bombarded by paranormal phenomena.  However the activity this time round in season 2 centres on other towns around Shepherdstown.  These now have activity which needs to be investigated and Chief Mike King gets calls from the neighbouring law enforcement bodies.  As he tells Nick Groff, he's now seen as the paranormal "go-to guy."  Elizabeth Saint once again mentioning the strong water connection.   The buildings at Harper's Ferry were made with a lot of limestone and stones from the riverbank.

This time in the first episode the activity was at Harper's Ferry and specifically at the John Brown Museum.  John Brown was the famous slave abolitionist who was hanged.  The song (words written by Julia W Howe in 1861) about him being the Battle Hymn of the Republic including the following: 
He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true
He frightened old Virginia till she trembled through and through
They hung him for a traitor, themselves the traitor crew
His soul goes marching on
Glory, Glory! Hallelujah!...

His wax figure stands in the sub-basement of the museum, where Ann tells the team of Nick, Elizabeth and Bill Hartley that she doesn't go near there.  But Nick and Bill did, where they got EMF readings and Nick got his hair touched.  Yeah man always with the hair!  With Bill remarking how Nick was "feeling the surface temperature cos your hair gel is starting to fail you..."

Ann also told them how she heard loud bangs and the wall "breathing" like it was moving.  Here they were certain they were dealing with a negative presence.
As well as Elizabeth not being able to breath.  She took Ann and went to meet Dana Mitchell, their historian for background history on the house and who lived there.  My sis kept wondering about the family who lived there too.  Oh yes Ann great "grave sense of humour" as she called it, with the dummy that actually breathed.  Thought it moved, was just about to say that.  But it wasn't paranormal and was meant to do that.  Oh and the figures were all meant to be made of real human hair and dentures!  Not surprised Elizabeth didn't touch them!!  Or did she.  Must ask her.  Elizabeth replied, "oh no no no!"

Nick and Bill were at the wall on the first floor where they heard the door banging; that's where I said they were when Nick jumped over the banister!  Anything for the investigation!
Funny I tweeted a question for the Destination America Facebook Chat on 10 July and guess what: it was all about the risk factors! My uncanny senses are tingling again!! Ha.

Will we see @NickGroff_ taking anymore risks cos a show isn't the same unless he goes all out for the investigation shows dedication? #GoS  July 5 
(Didn't get to watch the ep until 8th July.)

The family who resided there were an Irish immigrant family, Martha Walsh, who had nine children and the eldest Sarah, looked after the others.  Which backed the spirit that was seen by Melissa, who worked there.  She also heard four knocks, which Lorie Johnson tells them about, that Sarah's two siblings were there.  Saying that Sarah died of some "form of disease," which as Dana found, was pneumonia.  Again showing how Elizabeth felt the breathlessness too earlier on and it's relevance.

The night investigation reveals more activity, more bangs and thumps and Lorie wanting to take the girls to the light so they can find each other without the negative entity stopping them from reuniting.  A dark shadow being captured on the thermal camera in the basement, where Elizabeth had been not a few minutes earlier (according to the edits.)

The dark mass does look like a figure.

Ann also having an 'accident' were she ended up in hospital with a broken arm, thinking she was pushed by something from the museum.  Lorie managed to send the girls towards the light and the negative entity appeared to have gone too.  Though where it went to is anyone's guess.  No further activity was reported at the museum.  This is one museum I'd like to visit with such creepy and authentic, life-like looking figures.

However Chief King had another 'break out' for them to investigate at  Sharpsburg; a neighbouring town.  Elizabeth just happened to be standing by the map on the board showing its name earlier.  Also near the Potomac River

Lots of crazy activity going on here showing that the show and the investigators haven't lost their touch (well obviously not) but the show is compelling as always and there's so much to come in this 8 episode run and to look forward to.

Doctor Who 10.12 "The Doctor Falls" Review

                                           
The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) is carried by Bill (Pearl Mackie) and we see him at the rooftop with the Master (John Simm) and Missy (Michelle Gomez) in restraints and he flashes back to what happened with the lift and Bill, being hit on the head by Missy, falling onto a computer keyboard and Nardole (Matt Lucas) running away, then the Doctor falling down.  He asks them where Bill is. Whilst they dance on the rooftop and the Master says how he'll be turning into her soon, a woman. Missy" hold me. "
Master: "kiss me"
Missy: "make me."
They would tell him where Bill is but...she's behind him, as a Cyberman.  She waited for him and the Master comments how she waited 10 years but he was 2 hours too late to save her.  The Master shows him his city and how everyone is being converted to the Cybermen.  The Doctor speaks of his return.  How he left him at Gallifrey and they fixed his condition.  He then left there, it was a mutual leaving.  He tells the Master how his TARDIS crashed here and he took over the city with the people finally rebelling his cruelty and he had to go into hiding in a disguise as Razor.  The Doctor surprises them by saying Missy shouldn't have hit him since he had time to mess with the programme, even if it was only one key he could press and initiate one change, altering the the Cybermen's humanity.  When they find that out it will take them a while to figure it out and reconfigure themselves. Remembering how the  planet, Mondas, Earth all fell.

They also question the Doctor on his last requests and ask if he's ever been burned, or drowned. Missy saying she recalls he fell once.  Was she alluding to now when the Doctor will fall.  Te Cyberman exit the lift and they fire at them with their Sonic, with one of them getting through and getting hold of the Doctor as Nardole flies in on a spacecraft to rescue them.  Bill gets angry and kills the Cyberman.  The Doctor can only exclaim "Bill."  Was this since she saved him or that she had the ability to do this now: to kill.  She holds onto the ladder and carries him out as he loses consciousnesses, I wanted to say faint, but that'd be uncharacteristic.  Missy was also going to help him with the Sonic, but Bill got there first.

They arrive on the solar powered floors where farming is taking place with a holographic number and sky.  Nardole tells the girl, Alit (Brianna Shann) they need help.  Bill wakes up in the barn and Hazran tells her the Doctor wanted her here to be safe.  She wants to see the Doctor and Hazran (Samantha Spiro) appears to be afraid of her.  The Doctor's getting his injuries tended to and they've been here two weeks.  Alit isn't afraid of her as Bill tells her she would never hurt her.  She brings Bill a mirror and she looks to see herself as a Cyberman and is in denial.  The Doctor turns up and Alit  tells him she gave hr a mirror, to which he says it's okay and offers her a jelly baby, having one himself.  (A penchant of the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)).

The Doctor tells Bill she's now a Cyberman but she can't believe that's her.  She waited for him for ten years and he didn't come.  He says he can fix this, however he can.  Bill gets angry and blows up the barn.  She's allowed to get angry for what she's become.  Nardole meanwhile gets set on finding effective weapons against the Cybermen as they will be arriving soon and their guns won't do.  With Hazran finding she's attracted to him.  He tells her he's not human, but she'll try anything once.

Missy and the Master have a conversation about becoming a woman as they take the Doctor to find the lift hidden in the woods so they can evacuate the children.  The Doctor tying to conceal his regeneration.  They find one and then some more and Missy pushes the call button alerting them to their location.  They'll be here now which makes evacuating the children imperative.

He asks them for their help telling them it's what he does in an impassioned speech about saving humanity, but they both refuse as he and Missy find that they can use the Master's TARDIS which is on the bottom level to get away from here.  Obviously the Doctor can't us his TARDIS cos it's on the bridge and it will take them too long to reach it, by the time they do they'll be invaded by the Cyberman already.  No they must stay and fight.  The Master refuses cos he tells the Doctor he wasn't listening to him, yeah with his 'round face' but Missy appears to have second thoughts and they touch hands.  However she tells him she's not staying either.  See mistake putting her in the vault and trying to get her to change.  He tells her he's noticed she has changed, but she says she hasn't.  Of course we know she'll be coming back to help cos she has changed.  With the Master applying some eye liner, well it was meant to be guy liner for now!  Also Missy used lip gloss on the roof so shades of make-up sneaking into Doctor Who!  Ha.
Doctor: "where I stand is where I fall, stand with me.  It's all I ever wanted;" he pleads but she was dogged determined to follow the Master.

So the Master will regenerate into Missy and that's why she was in the vault to begin with so that the Doctor could help her change and become a better person/Time Lord with her regeneration.  At least that's how I see it.  As they reach the lift;  the Master wonders if he's wrong about his feeling this way.  She tells him it is wrong and then she retracts her hidden knife after stabbing him.  He didn't feel that, in some ways she was still herself.  He says she gave him enough time to reach his TARDIS and have a cup of tea before he regenerates into her.  Begging the question of why they were killing each other anyway.  Missy telling him this is what it was coming to and was meant to be, them helping the Doctor.  But he says no it wasn't and gets her in the back with the full blast of his Sonic so she can't regenerate. Knew that was coming.  Missy dies and the Master will become her, suppose they couldn't have two of Missy around.  Without the Doctor even knowing that she was coming back to help him.  Is this where Missy was meant to have led them all the time when he let her out of the vault and onto the ship last ep, since she told the Master she can't remember everything, but they're his memories.

Nardole upgrades their guns, however there are fuel lines underneath the ground that's how they can blow up the Cybermen when they arrive.  The Doctor mentioning they'll think they have upgraded weapons and so the Cybermen will have to upgrade theirs too.  He unearths a service tunnel which can be used to evacuate but someone must remain behind to blow everything up.  Nardole wants to but the Doctor sends him with the children since he's stronger.  He knows it has to be the Doctor who must remain behind and Bill wants to stay too; reminding the Doctor what she said about rather being dead than being a Cyberman.  This is their farewell then and Nardole says he won't find the words.

                                              

As Bill and the Doctor fight the Cybermen and he gets killed twice over for his two hearts.  This is how it's going to be, no stars, he wished there were stars but there's only a tumultuous explosion.  As he sees all his companions, Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy and Clara as well as Captain Jack Harkness and Sarah Jane. This is where the Doctor falls/fell.  Ahh the Doctor remembered Clara after all.  Bill finds him and cries as Heather (Stephanie Hyam) the 'water' girl  from the 10.1 The Pilot ep, appears and Bill leaves her body with the cybershell falling to the ground.  She asks if she's dead and she kisses her and asks if that feels like she's dead.  They can't leave the Doctor here and tells Bill she gave her tears.  Flashing back to the first episode where Bill comments those tears aren't hers.  The Doctor also referring several times to the Cyberman having tears now.  "Where there are tears there's always hope" as he told her and Bill repeats this.  The Doctor having uttered his last words of  "without hope, without witness, without reward."  
The words of River Song from 10.6 Extremis:  "‘Only in darkness are we revealed. Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage. Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit, without hope, without witness, without reward. Virtue is only virtue in extremis. This is what he believes. And this is the reason above all I love him. My husband, my madman in a box. My doctor.’ "  

They take him to the TARDIS and she tells Bill she can return her to human form rearranging ehr atoms and she can make chips or come with her (in a scene reminiscent of Clara and Ashildr when she left.)  Heather shows her the universe and she can show her around it.  But Bill says she's been around a lot, so she can show her around.  The TARDIS being piloted by Heather, as she was a pilot after all.  Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the TARDIS have a mind of its own in the Doctor's Wife so why not be able to fly by itself and reach them in the ship, though I know that would've been too easy.  Even though Idris's (Suranne Jones) body died and she disappeared into a burst of light, that would've been something unique about the TARDIS now.  Oh one ore thing, before Idris 'died' she told Rory (Arthur Darville) who tells the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) of  "the only water in the forest being the river."  Once again Doctor Who having a watery connection with Heather too.

Was this more of a mish mash, sorry to use that expression, of the Doctor going to war.  As he speaks of how he falls where he stands and he will help save whomever he can, however he can.  That even if he saves a few it will be worth it.  That's all he does since he is THE Doctor.  Ahh tears anyone, sure some were shed aplenty, admittedly I had a teary moment, it was too difficult not to.  Especially since we're used to losing Doctors so fast now, they come and they go and each one surpasses all expectations than the one before.  Hated seeing David Tennant go, then Matt Smith and didn't think Peter would be much good, but I take back my words and eat a large chunk of the TARDIS, cos he was magnificent and actually brought the Doctor into his own showing again that age doesn't matter when playing this eternal, immortal Doctor.  He gave it his all and after Clara/Jenna Coleman leaving thought it couldn't get any sadder than that but the Doctor refusing to regenerate cos he's had so many faces and doesn't want another one, wishfully thinking he could stop it from happening even repeating Doctor Ten when he said "I don't want to go;" was all incredibly breath taking and sombre! We didn't want him to go either!  Doctor: "Never again... I can't keep being somebody else..."  We'd have liked for him to become Missy though, she did redeem herself in many respects and yes the Doctor a woman, they said it enough times.

The Doctor saying the only one to stop the Cybermen and that's "me."  Which he did do by calling out the places where he had victory over them all and exploding them: "Mondas, Telos, Voga, Planet 14, Canary Wharf, Messier 13... and the moon."  Before meeting his final demise (final being used loosely) he awoke after Bill left and once again after she dropped a tear on his forehead.  The tears again and the tears of a companion who stood by him enthusiastically and who herself 'lost' her life. Could Missy have uttered it so graphically and in so many descriptive ways: "she's dead, dismembered, fed through a grinder and doomed to spend an eternal afterlife as a biomechanical psychozombie."  However the Doctor told Bill she was strong resisting the consciousness of the Cybermen and spending all that time with the Monks, made her 'compartmentalize - my word - her emotions.  She still has human emotions.

Alit was reminiscent of a young Bill and as plucky as Bill now, with the Doctor giving her an apple, calling it humanity's first weapon.  (Garden of Eden there) and she threw it at the Cyberman making them explode.  With Nardole's non-too witty remark of "the ultimate apple upgrade."  Well the Doctor did swipe Nardole's technology to the Sonic to enable him to fight the Cybermen, it was his destiny as always.  Another reference/dig by Stephen Moffat to Drumpf and how "like sewage, smartphones and Donald Trump, some things are just inevitable."

Then came the Cloister bells with the Doctor determined not to regenerate and his meeting the original Doctor (David Bradley) leading to to the Christmas Special...

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?