Review: The Power of Three

So, episode four of series seven of "Doctor Who".




Spoilers.


































Okay, let me preface this by saying I overall liked this episode. Just. It wasn't as bad as "A Town Called Mercy" but it wasn't as good as the other two.

This episode was clownish and a little excessive in the comic relief, but had the entertaining part of doing things from the perspective of Amy and Rory, rather than showing how they're sucked long with the Doctor.

The menace - the Shakri - was pretty cool. Kind of liked that. And I loved the new scientific adviser for U.N.I.T. Go shout-out for the Brig! Kind of hope she's a recurring character.

Overall, a bit on the goofy side but fun.

Very corny ending but I've seen worse.

EDIT: okay, I ought to summarize a bit, if just to earn the spoiler tag:

Amy and Rory are relaxing, getting into the groove of "real life" and reflecting on whether or not they want to continue doing side trips with the Doctor across time and space.

Heavy-handed foreshadowing of the eventual exit of the Ponds from the show.

Individually, Rory and Amy find themselves getting more enmeshed in their real relationships. Rory gets full-time nurse work while Amy gets involved as a bridesmaid with a friend's wedding.

Cue the weird.

Strange black cubes start appearing all over the world. They don't do anything. They're inert and mysterious.

The Doctor, popping in-and-out of the life of Amy and Rory, starts to investigate the mysterious small black boxes to no avail. He does get the attention of the re-organized U.N.I.T. under the direction of their scientific adviser, Kate Stewart, who appears to know all about the Doctor.

U.N.I.T. supports investigating the cubes but the cubes just sit there and do nothing.

Even Rory's dad, Brian, determinedly watches the cubes, but nothing happens.

The Doctor, fed up with patiently observing the cubes (this incarnation clearly has ADD) leaves to go travel for a bit. Amy, Rory, Brian, and the rest of Earth watches the cubes then slowly forgets about them to get on with everyday life.

Months pass. The cubes are paperweights, garbage, and novelty items. Nobody gives them much thought, save Brian, who studiously maintains a very boring log on how the cubes don't do anything.

Until they start to do stuff.

The cubes start to act odd, each doing different things (taking tissue samples, shooting lasers, playing music, etc.). The Doctor, having returned in the meantime, starts to poke around.

Meanwhile, a creepy little girl with a cube watches as weird men with cubes in their mouths abduct people from a hospital.

Cue more weird.

Turns out the cubes and the little girl are all constructs of the Shakri, a race that "cleans up infestations" and they've decided to kill off the human race before we get off-planet and start creating trouble.

Cue corny speech from the Doctor about how good humans are, how he likes us, blah-blah-blah. We've heard countless variations of the same speech over and over, so nothing new there.

Hand-waving sonic screwdriver magic wand b.s. The Shakri are anticlimactically defeated.

Brian encourages Rory and Amy to continue to travel with the Doctor instead of succumbing to the lure of "real life".

Cue very, very unnecessary and corny line about how cubes are the power of three while the Doctor poses with Amy and Rory.

All-in-all, the episode was rushed and choppy. The villains were kind of cool but defeated far too fast. The foreshadowing is about as subtle as a nuke.

There were elements I enjoyed and I have to say I'm still liking Chibnell's efforts as a writer, but it was not an exceptional episode by any means.