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Doctor Who – The Power of Three

The Doctor has had a great number of companions, some memorial, some less so. In the new version of the show we have had the personal and real lives of his companions. But The Power of Three gives us the first opportunity to see the lives of Amy and Rory along with the impact of  what traveling for 10 years has on their regular lives. Making matters more interesting, a large number of small black cubes rain down on Earth and The Doctor, his companions, and the international intelligence agency UNIT have to investigate and inspect them before they could enact any sinister purpose they may have.

I will state this, I believe Amy is the best companion The Doctor has ever had and Karen Gillan is the best actress to play a companion. However, Amy has always been an enigma. This episode allows us to see what life is like Amy and Rory, which has been built up in the first two episodes of season seven and the supplementary online content that BBC has made. While the mystery is interesting enough The Power of Three is very much a character development episode for Amy and Rory, exploring the big question that they will need to face sometime, will they keep going on adventures with The Doctor or will they settle down? There is acknowledgement that there is some of The Doctor’s companions might not survive their adventures and there is always a risk with traveling with The Doctor.


There is a great character moment between The Doctor and Amy as The Doctor explains why she is so important to him. It has built on the relationship, showing why The Doctor holds a special place in Amy’s heart, that Amy is significant for the simple reason that she was the first person to see him after his regeneration. There is also a clever idea of what would happen if The Doctor suffered from a heart attack, which would not kill him or force a regeneration, but it would incapacitate him.

The episode plays a little like the season 2 episode “Army of Ghosts” had The Doctor been around at the start of the mysterious events. There is a longer time scale to usual Doctor Who episode, allowing a long build up for the mystery and seeing the more personal stories that happened during Russell T. Davies’ run of the show. But a drawback was the episode was a little too drawn, leading to a diversion where The Doctor, Amy, and Rory go away for seven weeks, which really was just filler and  excuse for some jokes. There were also a couple of needless celebrity cameos, the worst offender being businessman Lord Alan Sugar, advertising another BBC show. At least the cameo from physicist Professor Brian Cox made sense.



There are fun little touches such as Rory’s dad (Mark Williams) coming up with ideas of what the cubes could have inside them, from mini life forms, mini robots, radio transmitters, etc. asking the questions that many people ask. Matt Smith continues to bring his maniac energy to the role and there's plenty of goofy humor.

To anyone who has been following Doctor Who news you know that Amy and Rory's time on the show is coming to an end and that the series has been building up to their inevitable departure from the show. It will be a sad day however Steven Moffat decides to do to get rid of these two popular characters, which we'll find out next week.

Rating
8.0

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