New Who 4.10, Midnight

I'm up in Birmingham for the weekend, making sure that Mum's OK while Dad spends a weekend in Cambridge at his annual college reunion event. Mum continues to make good progress, but she's very tired out all the time. So, while she's sleeping, I hope you'll forgive me if I take the chance to catch up on a bit of Who blogging. There may be some spam - but I'm sure you're all very adept with the scroll function!

First up, Midnight (yes, you remember - from nearly two weeks ago...)

( The cabin fever genre )

( How it's used here )

( The power of speech )

( The Doctor as enabler )

( The power of silence )

( The power of trust )

Classic Who: Meglos, Full Circle, State of Decay

( Fourth Doctor: Meglos )

( Fourth Doctor: Full Circle )

( Fourth Doctor: State of Decay )

New Who 4.11, Turn Left

Excellent! Sliding Doors for Doctor Who. A great idea, very convincingly executed, and very cleverly used as a way of both bringing Rose back into the series, and hinting at Donna's importance in the finale.

I cheered, of course, when Leeds was featured in the story, even if in a very negative way ("It's Leeds - or nothing!"). According to big_daz, though, the street which they showed wasn't actually Leeds at all, as the houses were the wrong design - and I think he's probably right about that.

Donna proved once again how awesome she is, although actually I think what I really liked was not so much her heroic self-sacrifice, or even her gritty determination to keep going as the world fell apart around her (and wasn't the hopeless, grey, alternate version of her Mum brilliant, too?), but the 'framing scenes' on Shan Shen at the beginning and end of the episode. Just like their equivalents in Midnight, they gave us quiet, understated insights into the dynamic that has developed now between Donna and the Doctor - their unselfconscious enjoyment of each other's company, their willingness to allow each other to go off and follow their own interests, and their readiness to comfort and support each other when it's needed. Of course, being shown all this is just more evidence that this happy partnership is about to be rent apart in the final episodes - but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

And RTD - two corking stories in a row now (though they still don't quite out-strip Fires of Pompeii for me). I'm sure he'll pull out his usual Total Bollocks Overdrive and deus ex machina ending over the next couple of episodes. But I think these are enough to say he's gone out with a bang.

Whew - I'm all up to date at last. As you were.