Doctor Who Review: Series 5 (2010)

hey guys it is wenge here and welcome to my now long overdue review of doctor who series 5. now i've often said series 5 is was probably always will be one of my favorite series of doctor who ever out of the new series you can make a case that is probably the best one and i think what makes that all the more amazing is that this came from the back of a very successful era of the show with the russell t davis era and obviously the david tennant era and this was totally new it was brand new it was fresh stephen moffat took over a show runner matt smith took over as the doctor and it was just a weird time to be a doctor who fan because no one really knew what to expect but i think it's safe to say in the end it paid off so before i properly get into the episodes that i'll talk about and what i think of matt smith and karen gillan and all this sort of stuff i have to give you a bit of context because around the time that this came out david tennant was probably my favorite doctor that is nowhere near the case now but at the time that's what it was david tennant was the doctor that i had grown up with i had been used to i mean i watched the classics as well but i was still kind of flip-flopping between the two of them like some days i'll be like oh yeah classic here is way better other days i'd be like no it's a new series and also it was a very significant time in my life because it felt like when tenant left and matt smith came in it was almost like a sign of the end of my childhood type thing because i was around that age so part of me was thinking like oh that's it then like my childhood's over i'm not gonna enjoy doctor who anymore it's all gonna change it's not gonna be the same anymore there's literally barely anything about it that's gonna be recognizable as the show that i love straight away you can feel the differences you can feel that yes this is still doctor who but this is a different show you know this is not the same as when tennant was around or when ecclestone was around or when russell was writing this is a totally different vibe and a feel series 5 really had this weird fantasy fairy tale vibe to it and to be honest i dig it a lot i mean at the time i probably wouldn't have thought this but thinking about it with hindsight doctor who really needed a refresh and i think this was it it was perfectly timed i think with this opening episode as well you needed to grab viewers straight away and i think it's got that typical mother-ism where something isn't just in a straight line it's not like a to b there's a little bit of a curveball there so obviously the fact that the doctor meets amy when she's a kid and then he's just like right i'll be back in a minute and then he's like what 12 years late that's a really nice moffatt thing i like when moffat does stuff like that where he will throw you a bone and say hey this is what it's like and then he's just like ah no it's not it's actually like this in moderation it works so so well and i think that's exactly what series 5 was it was moffat doing that in moderation and i think the prime example of that is in fact the 11th hour and what i think is even better about it is the fact that it has time to breathe it's just over an hour long i think it's like 65 minutes it's very fast-paced it's very well written very well acted and straight away you get everything that you need to know about this era you get the vibe of it which is the fairytale stuff you get an idea of matt smith's doctor you get an idea of the relationship and the dynamic between him and the new companion you feel straight away moffat's input like this episode is one that i could re-watch time after time i think it is arguably the best post regeneration story that we have ever had now you obviously have stuff like power of the daleks spearhead from space that contend with this but i don't think there's many others series 5 hit the ground running i don't think it ever really stopped now something like the beast below for example isn't necessarily the best episode but it's still enjoyable when you're watching it but the one that i want to talk about next is the angel two parter because for me that properly solidified matt smith as the doctor i loved him in the 11th hour but the angel two parter was a key moment for me really because it was the first time we saw the doctor interact with someone who he's already met now obviously there was the daleks in the previous episode but victory of the daleks is a really crap version of power so with this not only do you get the recurring villain which is the weeping angels which is obviously a moffat staple but you also get riversong and you get a little bit more about her and it starts to unravel again more about what moffatt is doing with the show he is going to give you that mystery box thing he's going to give you threads that will lead somewhere sometimes those threads will in fact lead somewhere and it'll be very very satisfying other times they will lead somewhere but it won't be very satisfying other times they'll go absolutely nowhere and again it's not satisfying however the ones that he does give you that lead somewhere and it's satisfying they're the ones that we care about river song i feel initially starts off like that at least initially she seems like a really interesting engaging character you know she's got something about her with hindsight it's painfully obvious what moffatt is trying to do however at the time there was that ooh what is she about i think the fact that this was the first story that matt and karen filmed that for me makes it all the more impressive because you kind of feel matt feeling his own way around the park but it works for this story i think with the tension of the angels and being chased through the forest and the crack in time and everything it works for this story and it really makes me fall in love with the 11th doctor this is like my favorite version of matt smith's doctor because he has got that sort of buffing mad professor type thing about him but he's also got a heart and you can really tell that he is an old man in a young man's body so let's talk about matt smith for a bit now again at the time tennant was like one of my favorite doctors and i was just like yeah no one can replace him turns out they can they absolutely can because matt smith i forgot about tenant pretty much instantly like i just said he does that old man in a young man's body type thing but he's a bit more than that he's got a mysterious darkness to him he's got an edge to him and the fact that he is at the time at least an unknown actor and the youngest actor to play the part he had such a weight on his shoulders and follow him from tenon but he nails it i don't think matt smith as a performer ever failed as the doctor i think some of the stuff that he was given failed him and the characterization of his doctor borderline on parody at points particularly in series six and seven but in this season this is the 11th doctor that i love i love his costume in this series as well it's stylish but again it is kind of the old man in a young man's body it looks like sort of geek chic that young people would wear but it is something that you would stereotypically associate with an older person the bow tie the tweed jacket matt is just so engaging in this series and i think him and karen their chemistry really makes this series special for me because it's similar to the relationship of david tennant and donna you know that sort of dynamic where they are just friends yes there are some awkward moments where amy does try and plant herself on the doctor and it's really awkward to watch but apart from that i like their dynamic i like their relationship i think they both add something new something fresh to the parts and i don't think that their dynamic or their relationship is better beyond this series i think it actually gets worse but we'll talk about that more in the next couple of reviews but karen's great though in this series i absolutely adore karen gillan in this series apart from the obvious weird stuff where she's just like yeah i'm obsessed with this guy who is in my imagination yeah why does rory put up with her i also want to briefly talk about the lodger as another standout episode for me because i know a lot of people tend to on this episode and trust me i get you however i quite like it so i just wanted to take this opportunity to defend the lodger objectively it is nowhere near the best episode of the series that is easily the angel two-parter or the 11th hour or the finale or even amy's choice actually that's a bella as well but i really like this one it's a new dynamic again you know seeing this doctor who is clearly quite alien in an ordinary setting and trying to you know be a normal flatmate and try and just live a normal life for a bit that's really interesting taking this doctor out of his comfort zone i think was a brilliant idea and whether or not the episode itself is great it's a bit lackluster on the plot side the character stuff is what i really like about it but it does annoy me to a point where it's like why is the doctor perfect at everything surely he should be bad at some things but then again his relationship with james gordon or craig whatever he's called i quite enjoy it i like that chemistry it's clear that those two get on as well i think matt smith just gets on with everybody but anyway let's talk about the finale now i remember the finale of series five being like a mind pandorica opens big bang can't actually remember which order that is i think it might be that order either way it's a really good finale it's a really strong finale and to be honest the sad thing is i don't think moffat did a good finale ever again you guys know exactly how i feel towards moffat finales but this one he gets it's so right he doesn't take it too far i like the fact that there is this alliance as a one-off i like it where all of the monsters in the universe all these different creatures and aliens they're basically fed up with the doctor and they're like you know what let's all team up let's put aside our differences because we need to get rid of this because for too long he has stopped us from doing what we want to do he has stopped us from our conquests from taking over various planets and exterminating them a lot over there and whoever but i love the fact that you don't know that straight away i love the build up in the first part i really do i love the fact that it's a mystery that the doctor just can't quite resist trying to solve and in the process just falls for the trap and then the second part whilst i don't think is as good i still enjoy it a hell of a lot i love the little threads that have been planted throughout the entire series that build up to it so for example i distinctly remember at the time watching flesh and stone is that the second part yeah flesh and stone so the bit where amy's just sat down on the log and the doctor's talking to her and you see his arms reach out and sort of grab her whilst he's talking and he comes out with some weird dialogue but that wasn't what i noticed as a kid i noticed that matt was suddenly wearing his jacket and i was just like that's a really poor continuity error because matt is clearly not wearing his jacket and he hasn't worn it for like 10 15 minutes on screen now so the fact that they've just given him his jacket for him to wear in that scene is really bizarre you get to the finale it makes sense it's a different version of the doctor it's him from the future and it's stuff like that where it's like that's actually really clever i mean that is something really nitpicky that i don't think many people would have noticed necessarily at the time i know i did just because i was a nerd and i was just like i'm gonna pick apart every single second of this but it's also like the stuff with the crack as well the fact that with the angels in that same story and then it appears in various other different stories and it has somewhat of a resolve in this story but not quite and i also really like that they reboot the universe i i don't like the demigod doctor stuff where it's like oh god the universe without the doctor how terrible it all fall to i don't like that stuff but in an episode like this i can kind of understand where they're coming from because it's like okay so well you're taking someone significant out of the universe so things are probably going to go to if he isn't around i don't like it but logically it would make sense and i just like that old loop that moffat does i don't particularly like some of the stuff in the episode though but for a series finale with all the threads that was building up to it and all the characters and you know the stuff with rory who i haven't really mentioned but i'll talk about him a bit more in series six because he has a lot more of an impact than i feel overall for a first series like a first full series i don't think they put a foot wrong i can't sit here and honestly say you know what i liked the majority of that series however that episode that was a bit crap i don't actually think that you can name any episode of series five i'm pretty much gonna guarantee you that i like it even victory of the daleks which for me is easily the worst of the series even that has its merits because i like seeing well i mean i like the first two thirds maybe when there's like spitfires in space i'm like that's garbage and i don't like the weird fat jelly baby daleks but i like some of the stuff and i like the plan that the daleks have and yes it is a poor man's ripoff of power of the daleks but i like power of the daleks so to see a rubbish version of it is still pretty good this series had so much riding on it and i think they got it so right from the casting choices to the writing everything is 100 solid unfortunately for me personally it's also such a shame because i don't think we've had a series that has been this good since i really don't i don't think anything post this has come close to series five i think doctor who's been going downhill ever since this series and it's such a shame because this series was ten years ago now either way for me series five i'm giving a nine out of ten i think yes some of the episodes could be better such as victory such as the logic even though i really like it i think the beast below is a little bit forgettable but it is enjoyable but apart from that all the episodes are pretty strong cylorium two-part is a bit enough as well but i enjoy it that's the thing even when it's like not great i enjoy it that's the sign of a great series to me i'm never bored really throughout this series why did i not talk about vincent and the doctor see that's amazing as well like see this is what i mean this is such a fantastic series like vincent and the doctor phenomenal 11th hour phenomenal the angel two-parter the finale amy's choice it's all great in the comments below though guys let me know what you think of series five do you love it do you hate it whatever it is let me know if you enjoyed this video make sure you leave a like on it subscribe for more social media and patreon links will be in the description as always so if you follow me on any of those things i'd absolutely love you forever but until next time guys you take care of yourselves goodbye you

Channel: Wingy Media

Views: 4,145

Rating: 4.9737706 out of 5

Keywords: Doctor Who, BBC, Series 5, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Steven Moffat, Alex Kingston, The Doctor, Amy Pond, River Song, Dalek, Daleks, Weeping Angels, Cybermen

Id: 01KyQeJStHg

Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020