S7E4: The Power of Three (SPOILERS)

This one looks good!

It does look good---better than the previous ones at least, to me.

Looks like an Amy & Rory centric episode, too, which should be good as there looks like there's a few funny Rory scenes!

I happened to see a pic of Rory in some pretty short shorts. ...

I am very intrigued by the character of Kate Stewart, who seams to be involved with UNIT. Kate was the Brigadier's daughter........

I JUST FOUND THIS LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO



Oh God... I'm dying....

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

I could call the cube story weak, but it felt at times like more of an unmemorable side-plot for most of the episode. Such big things happened (huge invasion, people nearly dying), yet none of it felt big or serious...felt more filler-y. Plus the solution was (not surprisingly) meh. This kind of ridiculously casual and silly 'invasion' story felt like it came right out of the 9th/10th Doctor era (Although even this was better than those).

So this episode spanned SO much time (speaking of... don't know why they say they've travelled on/off for 10 years at the start when it was 12 years a couple episodes ago--assuming the Ponds are the same age---and this does take place afterwards since he's met Brian already... but that's just me obsessing over how old they are at any point.)

SO MANY outfits for the Ponds here. GOOD GOOD.

That 'power of three' line wins as the worst line of dialogue so far this season. I vomited after hearing it. No, I didn't. Well, my brain did a little.

So, I don't get it...I'D LIKE OPINIONS ON THIS:

The Ponds decide they like living 'normal lives' and want to continue doing so. That felt so right to me. Like, it was finally time to move on. That's what I kept getting out of this episode, and it would have been so perfect to make their exit that simple: have them move on. Why must they have some 'heartbreaking' finale to their story? I don't care how much I'll like the next episode, to me the best way for them to have exited the show was what we saw happening here: The Ponds beginning to appreciate the life they're growing together and gradually distancing themselves from the Doctor life, ultimately deciding that 'regular' life can be just as wonderful all by itself.... but then at the end, it's suddenly all "oh no, what are we thinking....we can never stop living the 'Doctor life'" without anything really major happening to lead them to that decision, to me. Whatever happened to him "saving" them by giving them normal lives so that he'll never lead them to their deaths?

Meh. This episode was.... Satisfactory. Probably not even that. I voted "Okay..."

The beginning was horribly cheesy. That whole narration thing with Amy was cringe worthy. Horrid. It was very (without causing any offense here ) American; very cheesy and very... yuck. Like a chick-flick or something. It was horrid to go through.

The main story was brilliant. I really liked the idea of the cubes and the mystery behind them. But let's face it, like with the Daleks in Asylum of the Daleks, the cubes were just there to aid the rest of the story and really had no point. They certainly weren't the centre point of the episode like they should have been, this whole episode is leading up to Amy and Rory's departure. Which honestly I have no problem with. The Ponds' story was good and watching them in this episode really makes you love them.

My biggest qualm with this episode was the ending. What a crap conclusion to a, until that point, pretty decent episode (minus the cheesiness). The cubes had been on earth for near a year. When they build the mystery up higher and higher throughout the episode you kinda expect there to be an awesome conclusion. Instead we get this wrinkly old guy that looks like Emperor Palpatine who hangs around for 5 mins before the Doc presses his sonic a couple of times and *BAM* the episode is done. The ending was too simple and too fast. I still don't even understand who the Shalkra were, how the earth was engulfed in that blue light thingy in space, or what was actually inside the cubes that was killing the humans. I'm completely lost. The only thing we know about the Shalkra is that they wanted to wipe out humans before they colonised space, but how can I like a villain that was stood there for 5 minutes, did nothing and never really existed anyway?

Really poor ending. The story was great, ruined by the Doctor typically using the "magic" sonic screwdriver to get away with everything. One press of that and yayyyyyyyyy the writer need not do any real story-making cos who wants a good story when you could see the Doctor press a screwdriver a few times?

The music throughout the episode was atrocious, too. Please don't tell me that the awesome Murray Gold produced this crap? It was so cheesy, I hated it. It made every scene unbearable. Like I said, too American and too cringe worthy.

It was good to see Brian again, though! He was awesome. Loved the nod to the Brig with the presence of his daughter. Awesome to see his legend lives on in her, and I'm sure there will be tons of fan-fiction based around her! It was also nice to see into the life of Rory (I previously didn't want a figure of Rory in his scrubs but now I think I do). It was good to see the affect that the TARDIS has on the Doctor's fellow time traveling companions. There have been discussions in the past about how long the Doctor has probably been traveling with the Ponds (full time and part time), made official today when Amy said about them knowing each other for ten years. I think the Doctor's relationship with the Ponds is a strong one, and next week's episode will be sad to see that ripped apart. Mais que sera sera! I don't want Rory to go but whatever happens I'm sure we'll all figure out a way for them to have survived and live on in fan-fiction.

All in all, a cheesy but decent episode until it was ruined by the crappy and abrupt denouement, but nonetheless some good scenes - but still not enough to balance it out. 4.5/10 from moi.

I agree with most of that, Scary. Though I didn't like the main story at all. I think I may have to go with 'bad' on this one.

...about the 10 years, I still think that's wrong....unless if the Ponds aren't the same age, I can't remember if that's been mentioned.

kcooper76 wrote:

I agree with most of that, Scary. Though I didn't like the main story at all. I think I may have to go with 'bad' on this one.

...about the 10 years, I still think that's wrong....unless if the Ponds aren't the same age, I can't remember if that's been mentioned.

In one of the other episodes of this series, Amy says, "Our friends will notice we're aging soon." So I guess it's kinda of been a while.

Well, not my favorite, but Kate Stewart......we won't let him down, etc.....sorry, but I teared up a bit there. And yes, the cubes were not the major story, but I still had fun.

Ronpur wrote:

Well, not my favorite, but Kate Stewart......we won't let him down, etc.....sorry, but I teared up a bit there.

She'd make a great recurring character if she shows up about once a year. MAKE IT HAPPEN.

kcooper76 wrote:

Ronpur wrote:

Well, not my favorite, but Kate Stewart......we won't let him down, etc.....sorry, but I teared up a bit there.

She'd make a great recurring character if she shows up about once a year. MAKE IT HAPPEN.

I am just glad they just made Downtime cannon by bringing in Kate Stewart! LOL

First dud of the season. Very forgettable episode.

Yet another worldwide invasion (groan) with a third of the population dying (double groan) then coming back to life (uber groan). Lame plot that was just window dressing to get a few scenes of the Doctor living with the Ponds. They could have just made it a small town with a handful of people dying and the Doctor could have still hung out at the Ponds.

As for "Kate Stewart", didn't really see a point to her other than for the namedropping. A nice little tribute to the Brig, sure, but it doesn't make up for the fact they hardly acknowledged him while he was alive and able to be on the show.

And with this episode in the bag I now sit and wait for the Christmas special. Next week's episode has ZERO appeal to me. Angels & Ponds, 2 of my least favourite things about the current show.

I can't believe I hated a companion-centric episode. This may be the first time that's happened.

rdks wrote:

As for "Kate Stewart", didn't really see a point to her other than for the namedropping. A nice little tribute to the Brig, sure, but it doesn't make up for the fact they hardly acknowledged him while he was alive and able to be on the show.

I am not sure what Nick could really have added to an episode, no matter how much I would have liked to have seen him. But, glad he did make it to Sarah Jane at least. Also, he was mentioned quite a lot. And I think the point to Kate, is she will be back. Apparently, it is being called her "debut" episode in some BBC media, and it seams she will be a recurring character.

I wonder now,with the inclusion of a spin-off media character in the main show, will we ever see any others? Frobisher? Kroton? Abslom Daak? I can dream.

Very sad that Steven Berkoff was so wasted on this role, maybe he will be back.

And did anyone else realize that Mercy happened sometime during this episode? The Henry VIII scene with Rory and his charger was shown. So, it had to have happened sometime during the year.

Ronpur wrote:

And did anyone else realize that Mercy happened sometime during this episode? The Henry VIII scene with Rory and his charger was shown. So, it had to have happened sometime during the year.

Yeah, Scary's above post mentioning that quote is also from Mercy, so that episode takes place during those 7 weeks the Doctor mentions.

Loving this episode! the concept and mystery of it! Not disappointed thus far.

I dunno. I liked the episode, but couldn't find any real reason why. There's a lot of cheesy one-liners. Here's the long and the short of it:

I liked Kate Stewart. She had a strong introduction, and then did nothing for the rest of the episode. Why have UNIT appear if they're not going to do something?

Surprisingly, I liked Amy in this episode. She seemed more mellow, more mature. Kudos for giving her a more realistic job too. Too bad Rory was sidelined for most of the episode. I agree with kcooper76 that this should have been their final episode

Have I mentioned that I like Rory's dad? He seems like he'd be a quirkier companion for Smith.

I also liked the Doctor's little speech about the universe to Amy.

The less said about the cubes the better.

I do have to agree that this would have been an excellent episode for Amy and Rory to finally make their exit.

But really, the highlight of the episode was the return of UNIT and the introduction of the Brigadier's daughter, who I hope will be a recurring character.

Oh, and that cameo by Brian Cox was cool.

I thought it was OK. Enjoyed Kate/UNIT stuff and Rory's dad. I REALLY would have loved to see the Zygons instead of hearing about what happened afterwards.

guvnagrover wrote:

I thought it was OK. Enjoyed Kate/UNIT stuff and Rory's dad. I REALLY would have loved to see the Zygons instead of hearing about what happened afterwards.

Would have preferred to see them, actually.

...

I get it!

There was no actual conflict going on in the story until the box gave people heart attacks. That's what made this story move so slowly...

Weak. Nothing to hold my interest.

This is another one of those episodes where a lot of kinda cool things were going on and all those different things were connected, but the writing was a little too weak to spin the yarn that pulls it all together. I really liked a couple scenes and the Brigadier tie-in was a nice thought, but overall it was an incredibly "Meh" episode and I was glad my smartphone had a full charge.

Well, a more straightforward story that we've seen this series, and more of a "fun" episode, if you can call the Earth's invasion and deaths of a 1/3 of the population fun! It was a lighter tone than A Town Called Mercy though, I think we needed this last romp before the Pond's leaving next episode.

It was great to see the return of Rory's dad, and you can see how he's grown as a character since Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Much more inquisitive, I loved the "Brian's log" parts, and the ending when he allows Amy and Rory to go travelling as he knows it's what is best for them was touching.

UNIT were a little underused but they were just a side plot really. Kate was a great character, very realistic as others have said, and I'm glad they had the Brigadier's legacy living on through his daughter.

The cubes were a brilliant idea, very clever writing there, although the actual people behind them barely appeared and the resolution was definitely rushed. The surgeons looked really really creepy but we never really found out about them.

Overall, a great episode, not the best in the series, but I enjoyed it. Next week - bye bye Ponds...