Doctor Who S6 Review!
Coming hot of the heels of a very well regarded 5th season, Doctor Who returned with Steven Moffat's sophomore season, a darker, more unbalanced season that brings together monsters and snores. Season 6 had been a mix bag for me, but upon re-watching it I have to admit...it's still a mix bag for me.
The season starts off with an alright two parter. The tone was noticeably darker, and it included a new creation by Moffat, The Silence. As season premieres go it had everything you needed; the team back together, a darker and sinister subplot, and a mystery that won't be revealed until the finale. They changed sceneries this season for it to take place in the U.S. during the Nixon era. I like to think this was a response to the immense fan reaction in the U.S. to Matt Smith's Doctor, because this season felt more American. Everything was darker, more serious, episodes were more episodic but still had enough to tie into the over arcing plotline. Basically, it felt different.
The first half of this season is rough to get through. After the two part opening it shifts to very mediocre stories. One about a pirates, that was somehow boring until the end, and another two part episode about flesh. On one hand these episodes felt padded and not needed, but once they were finished I could understand why they tried. The flesh episodes have an interesting theme to it, and one that Doctor Who is not shy from, but the execution of it was just abysmal. It could easily have been one solid episode, but instead it felt elongated for length.
The mid-finale is where this season starts to pick up. You learn more about the Doctor, and especially Moffat's new fan favorite character River. Amy and Rory, although mostly Amy, get more to do in the episodes that Moffat actually wrote, but this season is mainly a Doctor/River storyline. The first part of this season ends with the explosive episode, "A Good Man Goes to War." In this episode it really showcases how far the Doctor has come since the beginning of the revival era, and how much influence he's achieved over the universe. It's arguably the most fanboy made episode of Doctor Who, but I felt it was rightly earned for that moment and written well enough.
The rest of the season doesn't achieve the high point that "A Good Man Goes to War" achieves for, which is okay, but also disappointing. There are some fun River origin stories mixed into the second half, a really cool Amy episode where she has to survive for decades without the Doctor and Rory, and a strange Minotaur episode featuring a hotel. I find these episodes to be more successful than the first half, and are trying to tackle interesting concepts about trust, but inevitably they feel subpar to Doctor Who as a whole, and with the finale of the season tying up the mystery at the beginning, and pretty much bridging most of the River/Doctor relationship it feels more of a melancholy ending than a gang buster that previous seasons had strive for.
Overall, there are many episodes I found difficult to get to and the good episodes were then supbar to Doctor Who that has come before. The strange tonal shift on the whole season doesn't really work for the Matt Smith Doctor, and it has considerably affected the fun and enthusiasm of this season when you compare it to the last one. Moffat by far had the strongest episodes when it came to writing, and I have to give all the actors great props for pushing the material to a level slightly above what it gave. Without these characters I think the season would have flopped harder than it did.
C
Favorite Episode: A Christmas Carol
