Doctor Who 10x07 "The Pyramid at the End of the World" Review

SPOILERS

For only being halfway through the season, this is feeling more and more like a finale arc, but hey, I have to trust the writers know where they’re going with this. Moffat, I’m looking at you.

A mysterious pyramid shows up in the middle of disputed land, and the three largest military powers in the world, the US, China, and Russia, are all staking it out. The Doctor is called in as President of the World, a title he only recently gained, to figure it out. It turns out the evil monks who had been running the simulations of Earth in the previous episode decided now is when humanity would be at its weakest. The military leaders, and the Doctor, surprisingly, decide a joined attack is the best course of action. Unfortunately, the monks see them coming and stop their attack before they can do any damage, and they want to talk. The monks reveal they will help Earth, but only if someone in power gives their consent willingly and with love. However, as the leader of the UN and the military leaders learn, acting out of fear and strategy is not pure consent, and they all are killed. It’s now up to the Doctor, who is still blind.

The Doctor and others look at the strange pyramid.

I just loved the background story, how something as simple as one too many drinks, broken glasses, and a misplaced decimal point could end in global destruction. Erica was a doll and it would be nice to see her back. The whole sequence in the lab was interesting as well; everything seems like it will work out until he has to work a combination lock and the sonic can’t open it. He can’t see. He’s going to die. Until…

The twist with Bill at the end was something I didn’t see coming; rather, I wasn’t guessing the Doctor would get his sight back in this episode. I knew she would survive though; she was acting out of love, not love of the monks, but love of the Doctor, and that was enough. They restore his sight, he survives, and because of Bill’s consent as a representative of humanity, the world plunges into being ruled by the monks.

Next week’s episode ends this arc. It features a scary world taken over by the monks, the Doctor apparently on their side, and Bill going to Missy for help. It reminds me a bit of the year that never was, with Martha and Jack back in Season 3. It will be nice to see this all resolved, I’m guessing with a big retcon and we’ll be back to regular time travel zipping around the galaxy episodes in two weeks.

9/10

Once Upon a Time 6x21/22 "The Final Battle" Review

SPOILERS

“The Final Battle” was a delightful mix of seasons 1 and 3, with a special emphasis on the relationship between Emma and Henry and hey, if this is the last episode with most of the main cast, I am so beyond fine with it because I just loved it.

The whole episode was full of callbacks and tying up all the loose ends. It begins with a montage which I at first thought was going to be a look back through all the seasons, but it ended up being a highlight reel for Henry, which makes sense after watching the episode. Once again, Henry is the only believer in the whole town, which has reverted to “curse” form with Fiona as the evil mayor. The only difference is Emma is there too, as a mental patient who never broke the curse in the first place. Henry needs to get her to believe and Fiona is doing everything she can to stop him. Emma even ends up leaving the town, but it is Henry, as an Author of a little book of “Emma The Hero”, who manages to bring her back and believe again.

Emma is in a mental hospital and not believing anything.

It’s a good thing she believes too, otherwise every other realm that exists would be doomed to oblivion, including the Enchanted Forest and her family. Killian sets off to find a magic bean, a callback to the first adventure they had together. David gets crushed by the fallen beanstalk, and it’s Snow’s kiss that wakes him up, a callback to the very first scene of the show, which they added clips in there to show the parallels in case we somehow didn't get what they were going for, and I guess to reassure us that, yes, he’s alive, don’t worry. They use Jefferson’s hat to rescue people from other realms, including Aladdin and Jasmine, a callback to both Season 1 and Season 6. I was happy to see Zelena without the green, despite being in Oz. All of them huddled in the room as the blackness got closer and closer was chilling, even though I was about 98% sure they would all survive.

Rumple ended up killing Fiona, which I guess made the most sense. It wasn’t Emma’s fight there, it was his. It should have been his to begin with. He becomes “good”, I guess. Gideon faces off with Emma, and to his credit he is trying to do the right thing but since he is still under Fiona’s control, he can’t help it. She ends up throwing down her sword, and as he stabs her she gets all glow-y (I was reminded of that incident with Cora in Season 2). He disappears, and becomes a baby again so Belle and Rumple have a second chance with him. Emma lies on the ground, apparently dead, but then Henry says “I love you” and kisses her. And she wakes up. Season 1 finale, of course. There is a nice little montage of everything working out (and apparently “Evil” Regina and “Wish” Robin get a happy ending) and it ends with a big family meal at Granny’s…which is also an illustration in another storybook. The little girl from the beginning is reading it. It’s the future. What’s going on?

Emma refuses to kill Gideon. She is the Savior.

That ending, though. I watched a react video who guessed the guy was Henry the first time we saw him; I didn’t realize it until they set up the scene to be exactly like Season 1, Episode 1. The little girl was just adorable and I loved how they played the scene the exact same way. The show came full circle. Also, I noticed his apartment number was 815. I wonder, after all this time, if there will be a significance to that number/time or if the creators just liked using it over and over as a fun Easter Egg like A113.

In conclusion, I am so excited for next season. I wasn’t sure if I would be watching, with Jennifer Morrison and many others announcing their departure. But I am more curious than anything. Why was grown-up Henry in the Enchanted Forest? How did they get back to our world?  Why would he not remember he had a daughter? How is their family in trouble? All these, and more, should be answered next season. I can’t wait.

10/10

NCIS 14x24 "Rendezvous" Review

SPOILERS

“Rendezvous” was an okay episode, despite being the season finale. I think the only thing that made it a season finale was the cliffhanger that put main characters in danger of dying.

Body parts of a Petty Officer bring the team to Paraguay, only to find out they just found the hand of one officer, and the body belonged to his missing buddy. They returned to Paraguay against orders to help the man who saved their lives while they were on a mission there. His son had been captured by a local terror/rebelling group, and the team decides to help since they are there. They manage to rescue all the stolen children and get them to the safety of a helicopter, but the rebels followed them. Gibbs and McGee stayed behind to give them some cover fire. Gibbs, I understand. McGee, that was a bit of a bonehead move I kind of saw coming. Obviously, they’re not going to die. However, it will be very stressful for the other characters until we all know that for certain.

McGee and Torres look around the village in Paraguay.

This was an underwhelming finale to an overall pretty okay season. I am a fan of serial shows, or more accurately, a combination of episodic and serialized. Usually, the back half of an NCIS season would have some big storyline that comes to a resolution within a few episodes of the next season. Even having two or three episodes with a certain bad guy would be fine, like all the way back with Ari in Season 2. With the exception of Operation Willoughby, which only involved a few characters for the heart of it, there were no big storylines like that this season.

There are a couple explanations I can find for this. First, last season did sort of close an era. It was the end of Michael Weatherly as a character, as he went off to get his own TV show (or live what is probably just Tiva fanfiction, which I am perfectly okay with). It would make sense to start a season fresh, get the new characters in with a little backstory and a couple episodes focused on them. Maybe next season will have a little more fire.

Second, there is still next season. That will be 15 seasons, which is confirmed to happen, and there is no talk of ending the show yet. I think it might be possible they are just running out of ideas at this point. They’ve killed off enough family members, come up with plenty of terrorists, drug lords, and schemers to rocket the show for 14 years. Maybe it should be coming to an end? Who knows at this point. All I can say is a rewatch of the middle seasons may be in order soon.

8/10

Doctor Who 10x06 "Extremis" Review

SPOILERS

“Extremis” was a trippy episode. I kept vacillating between whether I liked it or not. I think I was a little too critical while watching and didn’t enjoy it as much, but in retrospect, it was pretty good.

I was a little surprised when they brought the Pope in, someone I believe they’ve mentioned before but we have never seen. I think it made sense to put him in this episode, though, because of the turn the episode takes, which I will talk about in a minute. The Pope comes to the Doctor for help, asking him to read this old text called “Veritas”, a text which has driven all who have read it to suicide because the truth of the text is a secret too horrible to live with. I was trying to figure out what exactly this could be. If it was something like, there is no Heaven, then people wouldn’t be rushing to kill themselves. So what could it be?

Ah. Everything is a simulation. We are living in a computer game. It was a bit creepy when the scientists all started rattling off the same numbers, but the explanation made sense: computers don’t do random. So I started thinking that perhaps the Doctor was real and the other two were a simulation, since he was separated from them for a long time in the episode. But he was a hologram too, and all seemed lost…until he emailed himself using the trusty Sonic Shades and brought us right back to the beginning of the episode with him opening the email outside of the vault, which, the first time I was the scene, he had just never read it, getting distracted by the Cardinal. He now knows there is a big threat to Earth, and he has to stop them in the typical Doctor way.

Missy faces her executioner, her oldest friend.

Of course we have to talk about Missy, who was intermixed throughout the episode. She is finally being executed for all of her/his crimes and the Doctor is the one who has to flip the switch of this special “Time Lord Killing Machine”. He does, but he tweaked with the wiring beforehand and she is just shocked. He had promised to guard her body for a thousand years, and he does. She’s in the vault, completely alive. The plug about River from Nardole was very sweet, since they make it clear this is right after he leaves her to go to the library. Never thought we would see her diary again.

Here’s my prediction, and I can’t believe how obvious this is getting: because the Doctor spared her life, Missy gives him some regeneration energy to fix his eyes, a bit like River did with Eleven when she regenerated from Mels. This means that Missy will have to regenerate, and who else would she regenerate into but John Simm’s Master? It makes perfect sense.

9/10

Doctor Who 10x05 "Oxygen" Review

SPOILERS

“Oxygen” had some things to say about capitalism, and it honestly wasn’t my favorite story. It was a bit scarier than “Knock Knock”, but a lot of it didn’t sit right with me. I’m not sure why.

I liked how they brought the lecture hall back, and yet again the Doctor has a monologue which previews the episode to come. What happens when you are exposed to the vacuum of space? The important thing is to keep breathing. I enjoyed the little Star Trek reference at the very beginning, and was I the only person who thought his sketches on the chalkboard made a skull?

Narole was tricked into coming on the trip this time, and he was not happy about it at all. He provided sarcasm and not a whole lot else. However, with the Doctor being blind for the foreseeable future, he will be more necessary to keep up the deception or to help the Doctor around (though knowing him, he probably has good senses anyway and might not need that much help). We go an episode without seeing the vault, but despite Internet chatter, I don’t think Missy is inside.

Nardole, the Doctor, and Bill don the potentially dangerous space suits.

I figured Bill was not going to die. Her suit was malfunctioning, so there was something in it that would prevent her from being shocked all the way. It was a little bit scary, though, as the Doctor insisted they leave her behind and you have to watch her terrified as she thinks she is going to die (and for a few minutes, she is, walking around like a zombie). Just watching her suit malfunction in other scenes was a bit nerve-wracking since you didn’t know how that would affect her. The scene when she had to be exposed to space was a bit trippy as well. Bill had a rough episode, but we know she stays for a little while.

With the death of the screwdriver and the Doctor being blind, it looks like the sonic sunglasses are back. Not my favorite thing, but I have hope the writers know where they are going with this. There’s a lot of speculation going on right now about how the Doctor will get his sight back. He will probably end up triggering a small regeneration to temporarily fix it, or end up like 10, regenerating into the same form for the remainder of the season.

The episode showed the extremes of capitalism, making a vital thing like oxygen limited and expensive. The company is just exploiting the workers, and once they have served their purpose, they will be replaced with new ones. The suits which protect them also kill them, but not as a malfunction. The Doctor figures this out eventually, and uses it to his advantage as he makes the workers more valuable alive than dead. Apparently this incident leads to the ends of capitalism in space.

Next week’s episode looks awesome. I’m getting serious “Library” vibes from it. Hopefully it is pretty good.

8/10

Criminal Minds 12x22 "Red Light" Review

“Red Light” is the season finale we have been waiting for. It was amazing, a roller coaster of emotions that didn’t stop until the end, and even then we were left with a cliffhanger. Let’s get into this.

The main focus on the episode was Reid, of course. This whole half season was about him and bringing this story to a close. Who was after him? Why were they after him? How is he going to get out of it? How was it all going to end? All these questions had been answered except the last, as we waited with anticipation to see what happened with his mother’s kidnapping. I was right in my prediction they would not kill her off. The other thing about Reid is we see his darker side as in anger he throws Cat up against the wall and tries to choke her, and of course the big secret, that he enjoyed poisoning his fellow prisoners.

And of course I can’t not talk about Cat Adams. I enjoyed her character and her interactions with Reid. I loved how they played out Cat’s game, bringing them into a mind palace of sorts, all swanky and completely the opposite of where they were. I was surprised at how far she took her deception, and was not surprised of the nature of the relationship between her and Lindsey. I figured Lindsey would be the weak link to break the whole thing up, and she was. She felt betrayed by her lover and gives herself up. A good thing, too. She was quite the killer, and even the gas station fire seemed like overkill.

I really enjoyed them bringing Derek back for part of an episode, even if it was just for 10 minutes and that was all we were able to see of him. I couldn’t remember the last time Emily and Derek had seen each other, so that was sweet. And him and Garcia is something I’ve missed. I love their relationship so much.

Oh man that cliffhanger. Of course they’re all going to be okay, unless someone wants to change their contract, and then they will mysteriously die during the break. Everyone is going to be fine. I was expecting the house to blow up as soon as they got there. Having a trap on the road was very unexpected but I liked it. It goes along with the idea of Scratch being very tricky and unexpected. I wonder how long this story will take to be resolved next season.

10/10

NCIS 14x23 "Something Blue" Review

“Something Blue” was such a good episode. McGee and Delilah are currently my #1 ship on the show and I just love watching them interact.

The main story of the episode revolved around a Petty Officer who suddenly died in his sleep. It turned out he had accidentally ingested ecstasy and combined with his blood pressure medicine resulted in a heart attack. This was another unfortunate case of wrong place, wrong time, because the ecstasy was actually meant for a commanding officer, and not even out of malice, just as a prank. The perpetrator is not redeemable in my eyes, however; despite apologizing and admitting to it as soon as he was caught, he planted the drugs in another man’s bunk and thought that drugging the CO would be an acceptable prank.

The real heart of this episode were the interactions between Tim and Delilah, as well as the rest of the team. This was the first episode in a long time that I really felt again how much of a family this team is. Sure, we have had little hints here and there throughout the season, but in this episode all of them came together. I loved the opening scene with all of them at the tux place, offering their opinions and showing off a little, and how easily they all became concerned for McGee and Delilah later on in the episode. The special “family” dinner was a wonderful end. It was really beautiful.

The gang helps McGee choose a tux.

I’m docking a half point in my score just because of how predictable the storyline was. I figured out very soon in that Tim and Delilah would ditch the big wedding and get married before the end of the episode, because of whatever happened with Delilah, and I guessed before the episode even began and the thumbnail was the two of them resting in the hospital bed that she was pregnant. I think with the amount of television I have seen over the years some storylines and tropes are used over and over again (though I think the title kind of gave it away too).

I can’t have been the only person crying at the scene with Gibbs and McGee at the end. McGee wearing stars for his father? I’m okay with that. But Gibbs giving McGee his watch, a family heirloom meant to be passed down, is what did it for me. He even engraved it to say “Breathe”, like he had at the hospital earlier in the episode. Papa Gibbs is my favorite type of Gibbs, and I have this urge now to start the series over and watch little techie Timmy and think about how much he has grown since then.

9.5/10

Once Upon a Time 6x20 "The Song in Your Heart" Review

“The Song in Your Heart” was the highly anticipated musical episode of Once Upon a Time, landing in that interesting spot between the plot-smashing “The Black Fairy” and the two-part season finale.

I kept going back and forth between if I liked the episode or if I didn’t. I was on board with the musical storyline up until they found Hook in the pub. Like a lot of this season, it felt very early season. We have Snow and Charming wanting to defeat the Evil Queen and Regina in turn wanting to destroy them. Snow makes a wish on the Blue Star and they wake up the next morning uncontrollably singing and dancing (I got some “Once More, with Feeling” vibes from that). I liked how they flitted around the Enchanted Forest and let a lot of the side characters have a line to sing, only to be interrupted by Regina. And then they go in search of Captain Hook and I kind of lost where they were going with it; it was clear they were finding a way to throw him in because he could sing (And wow, can Colin O’Donoghue sing high notes!). But in terms of storytelling it bugged me.

Snow and Charming meet with Captain Hook.

Their voices were actually all really good. I can see why people wanted a musical episode. I just felt like it was a little wasted. Honestly, the biggest problem I had with the music was it all started to sound the same. The orchestration was pretty much the same modern musical orchestra and everything was loud and there was key change after key change after key change. I will say there were some unexpected resolutions in the melodies; good job to the composer for playing with my expectations. Also, Rebecca Mader slayed it. I’m not the biggest Zelena fan, but that was good. That song in particular sounded the most like an actual song from a musical – any ideas on what it could be?

I do appreciate that they did wipe the musical event from their memories, and that they did tie the musical part of it into the present storyline and gave Emma some literal strength in her actual heart so she won’t be alone in the Final Battle. That way the musical storyline was not too forced and it gave a little bit of light-heartedness before the season finale.

I loved the end. I kept watching the clock, thinking “there’s three minutes left. Plenty of time for something to happen”. But no, we get puddle-inducing Captain Swan wedding vows and first dance without a hiccup. Then they all break out into song (the big question is whether or not they remember it the next day) and everything seems to be great…until they all somehow still forgot about the Black Fairy’s curse and Grumpy/Leroy had his “The curse! It’s here!” line and the early season callbacks keep coming. Season finale next week, and I’m just excited to see how this is all going to turn out.

9/10

Doctor Who 10x04 "Knock Knock" Review

“Knock Knock” was an okay episode. I think the setup was stronger than the resolution, but that’s just my opinion.

I liked the way they are continually making Bill into a very realistic character. She’s in her twenties. She gets into a group of five other people and they start looking for a house to share. I liked the little montage as they looked around, with how tiny some of the spaces were. I also loved how she used the TARDIS as a moving van and told her housemates the Doctor was her granddad.

Haunted house I was into. Moving in all alone at night? Yeah, that’s a recipe to die, or more accurately, be eaten by the alien lice that live in the walls. Creepy landlord, the sound of little footsteps moving around them, knocking in the walls. Some of these moments were a bit eerie. You knew Bill and the Doctor were going to be fine, but I figured everyone else was fair game to get eaten up. Everything was sealed up and they were trapped in different parts of the house. All seemed lost until they found their way into the tower. Then the episode went downhill.

The Doctor tries to reason with Eliza.

I was getting major season 1 vibes from the entire episode. Not that that’s a bad thing – I really liked season 1 as a whole, and “The Doctor Dances” is one of my favorite two-parters of the series. But the whole resolution of the “daughter” actually being the mother and her sacrificing herself to bring back all the kids who had just died really felt like old hat. As someone said on Twitter, “Everybody lives, Bill. Just this once, everybody lives!” Four out of four episodes which seem to really feel like retreads of past episodes, and I can already see how next week’s episode is going to have a few familiar elements as well. Am I being narrow-minded, or am I not the only one noticing this?

I’m glad they had another scene with Nardole and the vault. So whoever is in there can play the piano and knows that Twelve likes Beethoven. That points toward it being Missy, but I still feel like it will be Simm!Master.

So as we look to next week, we’re given something serious to ponder over: is Bill going to die in the next episode? I saw a headline somewhere a while back that said she was fired, but I didn’t look further than that, so it could have been inaccurate. It looks like it will be the kind of episode where I’ll hold my breath the entire time, and that might be the point.

8.5/10

Criminal Minds 12x21 "Green Light" Review

“Green Light” was the episode I have been waiting for, finally bringing the story of the second half of the season to a close right after that wonderful cliffhanger in last episode. I do like how they carefully hinted at these things in the past, with one episode it was revealed there was a woman there, and the next with the identity of the woman revealed. What none of us were expecting was for there to be a second woman, who was actually impersonating Scratch and behind the whole thing.

Looking back on the episode, it might have been a little more obvious that something was going to happen involving Reid and prison. A good chunk of the episode was flashbacks to previous violence and problems in the prison; this wasn’t just so the audience could remember those things, Reid had to remember those things as well. It was obvious he was starting to lose himself and he really needed to get out of there. He made a shiv and stabbed himself so he could be put in solitary confinement now that the other prisoners whom he poisoned knew he was the one who did it. So it’s a good thing he got out of there.

Reid in solitary confinement.

They won’t kill off his mother, right? That would just be too cruel at this point. And Prentiss was right: they lose his mother, they lose Reid. And there’s been no other indication that Gubler wants to leave the show, since they got him out of prison. They’ll find her just in the nick of time and everything will be all right.

I really like this whole throwing away expectations and really surprising us. Cat Adams. I had forgotten about her. So this whole thing about Scratch going after the team is completely separate from these women who want to go after Reid.

My only problem with the episode was how quickly they finally managed to get Reid out of prison. There was all that hype about the fingerprints needing to get there quickly and they had that whole scene in the courthouse and it just felt so neatly wrapped up in a bow. They fixed it by having the rest of the story not wrap up neatly. Though I guess there would have been no other way to get him out of prison. Anyone else want to give him a hug as he stood there and waited for the door to open?

Good episode. Really good episode. Finally there’s some “end of season” resolution and Reid is out of prison. I can’t wait for the next one.

9.5/10

NCIS 14x22 "Beastmaster" Review

“Beastmaster” was a slightly different kind of episode, but I really liked it. NCIS is good at bringing to our attention different things that are going on in our world that remain hidden to all but a few. For example, in this episode, we saw the illegal smuggling of African bushmeat into the United States.

A park ranger finds a dead Marine in the park. They call Team Gibbs and in their investigation they find a bag full of monkey skulls from Africa, specifically Liberia. It turns out the Marine who was killed was recently in Liberia and put away a poacher and was working on preserving the wildlife there. The question was whether he was a good guy or a bad guy, and it turns out it was a good guy. They found some bushmeat and had to find the rest of it because there is a possibility the next batch would be tainted with Ebola.

The secondary storyline with McGee scheduling all their certifications in the same few days was not really interesting, though handing Reeves the pepperspray was pretty funny. The “C” storyline of Gibbs and the horse I enjoyed so much more. It’s been a while since we had a reference to Kelly and that was all so sweet. I remembered the flashbacks to the little Gibbs family riding horses on the beach. Gibbs spending the night with the horse was something I saw coming; I was even guessing that maybe he would take care of Jody.

Gibbs, Jasper, and Dawson

I was really preparing for the “bad guy” to be Officer Cole, but then he was shot. So my next prediction was Miss Spitz, whom I really didn’t like from the beginning. She did try to go after the bushmeat but that was just because she was really dedicated to her cause. And then the “bad guy” turned out to be the stoner guy. As soon as they showed the picture with the guy and the dreadlocks I figured it out. That was an okay explanation. And then the guy who was a part of the smuggling was one of the vendors they talked to. That made sense. Actually, I almost wanted it to be the spice lady.

It’s episode 22, and there really hasn’t been any indication as to where the rest of the season will lead. No bad guys have popped up suddenly, and I have not caught any very small running storylines that are supposed to explode in the finale. I’m guessing it will end on a big cliffhanger which will then resolve next season. Whatever happens, I’m looking forward to it.

8.5/10

(For the Whedon fans: Elisabeth Rohm in an episode called “Beastmaster” with opening shots around the city... Angel vibes everywhere!)

#TBT Merlin Review

Merlin is a BBC show which tells about the adventures of young Prince Arthur of Camelot and his servant, Merlin, in a kingdom ruled by “evil” King Uther (played by Sir Anthony Head) who has banned magic of any kind. Many hijinks ensue as Arthur continually underappreciates Merlin, who must keep his magical talents a secret. The show hits on many of the high points of any Arthurian story, including Guinevere, Lancelot, Morgana, Nimue, Mordred, the Sword in the Stone, the Lady of the Lake, and the Round Table. There is a lot of magic and magical creatures; in particular there is a dragon “friend” of Merlin voiced by the late Sir John Hurt.

I would call it very kid-friendly for the most part, especially in the earlier seasons when the bad guys are obvious and the solutions to the problems are funny. One of the first things I noticed was how clean it was; they barely show any blood, despite the frequent battles. Some of the stories do play out like a simple

One thing I like about the show is it has the ability to play two different tones. It can be completely light-hearted and hilarious, with line deliveries and innuendoes and antics and a musical backdrop that is playful. It can also be very dramatic and emotional, much like other fantasy shows I’ve seen. There are character deaths and high-stakes moments, betrayals, captures, battles, and tension, so much so that you are held captive at the edge of your seat. Sometimes the show does both of these things in the same episode. Sometimes the show picks one or the other.

There is a long time span from the start of the show to the end. Even though in reality it lasted 5 seasons and therefore 5 years, at least 10 years and probably more goes on over the course of the show. I like this, because there is so much that happens between episodes that you can headcanon and there is a marked difference between the characters at the beginning and the end.

The fun game was trying to recognize all the actors. Many of them were in Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Games of Thrones, or other British things. This was fun to do, to see actors in similar or completely different roles. My favorite was when Harry Melling, who played Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter, played a sorcerer on Merlin.

I have found this show, like many others I have discovered over the years, to have a small, but strong and active fandom. Since I had never heard of it until I stumbled upon it on Netflix, it is good that I found there was a fandom, still thriving. I recently found a fanmade script for Season 6 I am still making my way through. The power of fandom is amazing.

Will I watch again? Probably

Once Upon a Time 6x19 "The Black Fairy" Review

SPOILERS

“The Black Fairy” was an interesting episode, and that’s really all there is to say there. There were some good moments, some bad moments, and some shocking moments which ended up not even mattering in the long run. The stakes are definitely higher and it’s obvious the season is so close to being done.

I still hate the Black Fairy, or Fiona, since I guess we now know her name. For some reason, as a villain she was never very believable, and as a human she was even more intolerable. A lot of what happened in the dream sequences/flashbacks was just weird. So Rumple was originally a Savior, literally the subject of the prophecy Emma is part of right now, but his mother used those stupid shears and cut away that fate once she thought it would cause him to die and she couldn’t find the person who was supposed to it…promptly poofing from yellow to black and magically finding a cresent-shaped scar on her wrist. It’s one of those classic, in avoiding something, you make it happen, instances when it comes to seeing the future. I was reminded of Rumple and Bae a little bit (I literally just rewatched the Rumple in the war episode). The thing I believed the least was how easy it was for Fiona to turn into a fairy; was she already a fairy? It just wasn’t very clear.

Gideon doesn't know where his heart is.

There’s three episodes left! Why can’t Rumple just be good already, or redeemed? I definitely saw the ending coming. There was no way it was going to be that easy, that he destroyed her and everything would be happy and wonderful. They gave us a happy little scene with Henry and Killian to throw us off (which reminds me: I thought the consensus of last episode was they were going to wait a while to get married? I guess not?). Gideon getting his heart back was a nice touch as well, but it’s also a little ominous: she’s trading one “son” for another. Gideon’s gonna die in the finale, isn’t he? By the Black Fairy’s hand, and Rumple is going to be so mad he kills her, becoming the Savior or some workaround like that. You heard it here first, folks!

Make a wish for a happy ending and suddenly everyone is singing and dancing? This was Jane Espenson’s idea, wasn’t it? I cannot wait until next weekend!

8.5/10

Doctor Who 10x03 "Thin Ice" Review

SPOILERS

“Thin Ice” was pretty good, with a less-than-comical storyline. With a little help from Twitter, I found references to racism, economic inequality, and climate change in the episode, some being more obvious than others. And the fact that the “monster” of the episode was a regular human was definitely chilling. Doctor Who, like any good sci-fi, often has some underlying message which ties into the real world.

The Doctor and Bill face Lord Sutcliffe, the real monster.

I know I’m not alone when I say I just love Bill! She’s acting like any human would jumping into the past, wanting to try everything then quickly realizing things aren’t quite the same as back home. And then when Spider dies in front of her, for the first time the shininess and fun of this time travel gig starts to fade away. I loved the argument she had with the Doctor about how many people he’s seen die and if he’s killed anyone. The fact that he refuses to give a number gives me “Day of the Doctor” vibes. The Man Who Forgets.

I liked the way The Doctor personified the TARDIS in this episode, “she’s a bad girl, always looking for trouble”. Part of me wishes we could see a physical TARDIS again, and The Doctor could talk to her. Though she seems to be doing fine on her own, noticing the creature in the Thames and all that (I’ve taken to calling The Doctor, Doctor Oblivious, and definitely not Doctor Disco). We also got to see the benefits of the wardrobe, and the psychic paper and sonic screwdriver come in handy: a couple classic Doctor Who fixtures which blended in nicely.

This is three out of three for episodes which seem to be re-using old ideas. This week’s creature seemed a lot like the whale thing from “The Beast Below” and the alien from “Time Heist”. I’m not sure if I like this trend or not. Perhaps it is Moffat reliving his favorites (then bring back the Angels, why don’t you?). I liked the “Midnight”/”Waters of Mars” vibe of the premiere as opposed to this one, since I liked those episodes more.

That cliffhanger…I guess there’s a fifty-fifty chance it’s either Simm!Master or Missy inside the vault. I swear I heard a female voice, but some fans noticed as Nardole left whoever was in there knocked four times, just like Simm!Master always did, though not in the same rhythm (also, to anyone who watched Class, I was expecting a weird crossover – that knocking had some creepy stuff attached to it!). I’m excited to see how long it takes for them to reveal who is in there, but I’m okay with these alien-of-the-week episodes to get Bill pretty acclimated until then.

8.5/10