New Doctor Who Review Blog

In case you didn't know already, I now have an additional blog purely for Doctor Who reviews. At the moment it's only books and audios, but I hope to start covering the TV episodes from December. Hopefully, there will be at least one new review every month, as my University studies are still keeping me very busy, and as a result make it hard for me to engage in any outside project, including videos, on a weekly, or now even fortnightly basis, but I'll try my hardest to change that fact.

The current completed reviews are for Revenge of the Judoon and The Sirens of Time.

You can see the new Doctor Who Review blog at:

http://rtpfilms-doctorwhoreview.blogspot.com/

TV Review – Spooks 9.1 (BBC 2010) – 10/10

Although Spooks has always maintained a high standard of television, the last two series have partly felt like the show was running on auto-pilot. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case for Spooks’ ninth series so far. With a partial cast shake-up and a new character story development for Harry Pearce, it seems the show has gone back to basics.

The storyline for this episode also seems to reflect this approach. A new branch of Al Qaeda is planning another attack in London, only this time via explosive-packed remote control submersibles, using a hijacked tanker as a bluff and cover for their plan. Although this is the main plot, the episode also ties up some loose ends from the previous series, as Harry (Peter Firth) discovers that the former Home Secretary, who he thought was pushed out of office was secretly one of the heads of terrorist organisation Nightingale all along (long story) and was therefore partly responsible for the death of Ros (Hermione Norris) at the end of Series 8.

The following scene is possibly one of the greatest and most fascinating moments of the whole show, where Harry, having discovered this betrayal, apprehensively takes revenge by poisoning his old colleague/friend and being forced to watch him die, just so he can dispose of the evidence.

This leads me onto the brilliance of Spooks’ central characters. Whereas this opening episode may seem like typical action-adventure fare, albeit expertly produced, the show’s complex and detailed characters more than make up for some of the more far-fetched or un-original plots. Harry Pearce, the head of MI5, is bar far one of the strongest, and Peter Firth has perfectly pitched his performance for every single episode over the last 9 years. The difference in this episode for the character though, is that after so many years of tough experiences, Harry is beginning to despair both about the job, and whether he can still provide a positive contribution to the defence of the civilised World. He even tries to hand in his resignation to the Home Secretary. These feelings reach a peak, when Harry is forced to make a daring and difficult decision to activate an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) device just to deactivate the terrorist submersible bombs, which will also fry every electronic circuit in the city. Harry’s despair also makes him finally admit his love to Ruth (Nicola Walker), asking her to marry him. However, Ruth says it’s too late, and in a beautifully-written scene tells him that it would never work in the outside World: “We couldn’t be more together than we are right now”. How this new intriguing character arc will develop, will be fascinating to watch in the coming weeks, as are the hints that there is yet more dark secrets to be uncovered about Lucas’ past, not to mention the fantastic entrance of new hired spy Beth, played brilliantly by new cast member Sophia Myles.

All in all, this was a glorious return for Spooks to our screens, and I can hardly wait for the next instalment.