Magazine Covers And Detailed Spoilers For Season 5 Of Doctor Who

Four days to go and here are the magazines covering the return of Doctor Who. Warning: spoilers.

Radio Times - gotta love them. The cover has a new picture of the Doctor and Amy Pond and you get to see the inside of the TARDIS for the first time. I like it but the lack of a railing makes me hope our TARDIS duo don't have too many crashes. Interesting nuggets also included Matt Smith admitting he wrote fanfiction with the Doctor and Einstein to help him with the role. I can think of a certain episode for Season 6 now.



Gay Times - apparently Matt Smith is the first actor to play the Doctor to be on the cover of a gay publication. The issue came out last week and the coverage in twelve pages was brilliant. Every main player for the new series was interviewed and while there weren't any big spoilers (except maybe for the character of Rory - thanks Arthur Darvill), it was still a worthy issue.

Issue 420 of DWM comes out on April 1st and there are some new interviews with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan to behold as well as previews for the first five episodes. You've also got the option of two covers. Which one to snag is up to you but I think I'll go for the Matt one.

Then again, the one with Karen Gillan does look lovely as well. Oh, it doesn't matter as long as get some more spoilers and covers for the first series of 11th Doctor/Amy Pond books that are due out in April.

Matt and Karen were in Belfast yesterday to promote the new series (the kids loved it) and there was an interview with them on Radio Ulster. Sadly the female presenter kept mistaking Karen for Amy throughout the interview and that recurring question of 'what if there was a female Doctor?' popped up again. Is every companion from now gonna get asked that question? Other places that Matt and Karen's tour will take this is Iverness, Sutherland, Salford and Northampton between today and tomorrow. Matt also did an interview for Chris Moyles as well.

Some recent promotional pictures from the BBC Doctor Who site in regards to the arrival of the new series. The site has a series of different videos and preview clips as well as some character files and an archive for the RTD era and the Classic Series as well.

As for an episode guide for the new series, here goes nothing ...

5x01: The Eleventh Hour - Introduces the Doctor and Amy as they team up to save the world from the Atraxi, who are in pursuit of Prisoner Zero by any means neccessary.

5x02: The Beast Below - Doctor/Amy in the far future as the British people are amongst the stars. A masked lady wants the Doctor's help and Amy discovers a terrible secret that no-one else can remember.

5x03: Victory Of The Daleks - WW2 based where the Doctor and Amy discover that the Daleks are being used by Churchill or do they have their own plan? The Doctor needs Churchill's help to stop them.

5x04/5x05: The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone - A crashed spaceship, shattered temple and a climb to the maze of the dead. Weeping Angels are on the loose of the ruins of the Alfava Metraxis and River needs the Doctor's help. Amy also discovers something worse than just not looking at the Weeping Angels as well.

5x06: Vampires In Venice - First episode to add Rory as a companion and based in Venice where the House of Calverri has the city in lockdown. Also some slightly creepy girls with an aversion to sunlight.

5x07: Amy's Choice - Five years after her travels with the Doctor ended, Amy is reunited with him and on the eve of the birth of her first child, she's faced with a heartbreaking choice.

5x08/5x09 - 2015 and Dr Nashreen Chaudhry's team are drilling down to the Earth's crust but Amy realises that you can't trust the ground beneath your feet.

5x10 - Terror lurks in the cornfields of Provence and the Doctor and Amy team up with Vincent Van Gogh to take on the threat in question.

5x11 - The Doctor's forced to live in Aickman Road for a week and help solve the problem of a sinister force of a staircase that people walk up but never come down in. The one where he plays football.

5x12/5x13 - A message on the oldest cliff face in the universe, a puzzle box opening from the inside and a love that lasts a thousand years - the fates are drawing close around the TARDIS - is this the day the Doctor falls?

Guest stars this season include Arthur Darvill, Annette Crosbie, Olivia Coleman, Nina Wadia, Sophie Okenedo, Terrence Hardiman, Ian McNiece, Bill Patterson, Alex Kingston, Iain Glen, Helen McCrory, Toby Jones, Meera Syal, Stephen Moore, Neve McIntosh, Tony Curran, Bill Nighy, James Corden, Daisy Haggard and Melanie Walters.

BBC Site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw

Radio Ulster Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9zrAGdThY8

Chris Moyles Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPLHZqZb-pU

My Review of Brothers And Sisters 4x11: "A Bone To Pick"

Written by Cliff Olin And Brian Studler
Directed by Chad Lowe

Robert (re Kitty): “I hope there’s more time to start over.”
Nora: “You have started over.”
Robert: “Do you think she knows that?”

As episodes go, this continued a theme. The threat of Kitty’s survival and the chance miracle of a certain someone being able to save her as the Walkers themselves worried about her, when two other people weren’t scrapping in the hospital themselves.

Needless to say both Robert and Nora were going to have some choice words with Kitty concealing her bad news from them. The best part is both of them articulating their worry and frustration without going overboard. They could understand why Kitty chose to hold off telling them, even if they weren’t pleased.

And then there’s the chemotherapy. It didn’t work and Avadon was pretty convinced that other forms of it would be equally unsuccessful. Nora was right to ask the question and raise some concerns over the also risky bone marrow operation but in the end that was the final option for Kitty and the one she also went with.

Because television is so formulaic, even with the best of shows it was going to be obvious that none of the Walkers themselves would be a match. By that logic, it had to mean that Ryan could be the only viable candidate to help Kitty. The other problem was actually persuading him.

Ryan’s long dropped the pretence that he cares about the Walkers and he didn’t exactly hold back when Nora cornered him about helping Kitty. The truth is that while I don’t especially like Ryan, he did raise some pointers here that even his biggest detractors would have a hard time disagreeing with.

After the whole debacle of “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off” none of the Walkers have actually interacted with him all that much, except for Saul and no-one really took stock of the burning resentment that Ryan has in relation to William. Even Nora dismissed it when Ryan let rip on her.

Plus it didn’t help that Robert got a security guy to drag Ryan to the hospital instead of just telling him about Kitty’s condition beforehand and Nora did badly sell it too. The effects of a bone marrow transplant would’ve still had some effect on Ryan. It’s not like he’d feel right as rain straightaway after going through the procedure either.

But obviously Ryan was going to change his mind and that was going to be down to Nora talking about Evan growing up without a mother in order to get Ryan to help. It was also neatly designed to show us as an audience that Ryan isn’t all that bad. Do I like him now? I don’t know. I liked that he helped out Kitty and that the Walkers did express gratitude but I guess it depends really.

Is this a real turning point for Ryan as a character? Does he suddenly become more relevant, more integrated to the show instead of skulking in the background? Will being around the Walkers actually loosen his grudge against William or are we just going to go back to square one by next week?

If so, then nothing’s really changed. This week, not did he get to be hero for Kitty but he also had to deal with the consequences of his little wine sabotaging as well. I have to hand it to Holly, she was a lot more generous with Ryan than she needed to be but it’s pretty obvious that York is certainly going to let Ryan hang for this one. Next time, Ryan pick your allies better.

Speaking of allies, Robert and Kevin’s completely synthetic brotherly dynamic almost nearly came to an end as well. Having Robert followed – really Kevin? How did you expect that not to go wrong? Louis handed Kevin something pretty damning in regards to Robert and it actually blew up in Kevin’s face.

Robert having an affair would’ve definitely made him into something of a hate figure and because this guy is a male equivalent of a Mary Sue on this show, of course the mysterious woman would have to be a therapist. The fight between him and Kevin should’ve been funny but it wasn’t, given the circumstances.

Robert already told Justin that he feared for Kitty’s life and even confided in Nora about it too. The therapist reveal only solidified that along with Robert wanting to remarry Kitty as well. Blimey, two weddings in one season, on top of each other as well. I’ll curb the cynicism a little because the second wedding was sweet, I’ll give you that.

Even sweeter was Kitty (again obviously) coming out of the bone marrow transplant successful. I swear if Calista Flockhart doesn’t get an Emmy nod this season, then it’s a damn shame. I know there are some slightly cheesy moments but the acting throughout this whole storyline really does sell things.

I mean the scenes where she’s worrying about her own mortality to where she’s delighted that she’s going to be around to see her kid grow up are nice, affecting moments. Also, this episode isn’t thoroughly depressing either. The writers get to have some fun with Kitty and a previously unknown sex scandal with a really famous politician.

For legal reasons the writers were never going to reveal who the guy is and I can’t be bothered to guess (maybe it was a Democrat) but I knew well that Sarah would blab as soon as she started reading Kitty’s letters. Thank goodness they don’t know serious government secrets or else the US economy would be totally screwed over.

Also keeping with the political stuff – Robert withdrew his candidacy for governor. I didn’t see that one coming and if this had been last year, I would’ve been utterly glad when it was eating up too much screen time but the producers had gotten the balance right this year. That being said, I’m not exactly devastated to see that plot line done away with, though I guess it might mean something for Kevin’s working future with Robert.

Also in “A Bone To Pick”

It’s odd that Tommy wasn’t in this one. We should’ve had at least a brief scene with him in it, even if he did get tested for the bone marrow transplant.

Nora: “Kitty, is this really what you want?”
Kitty: “I wanna live.”
Nora: “Okay. What do we do?”

Ryan’s sideline gig as a crime mastermind/saboteur got confounded because the dolt didn’t bother to check the security cameras.

Robert: “I think I’m being followed.”
Kevin: “Why would you say that?”
Robert: “Because there’s a guy following me. He’s not very good at it.”

Kitty (to Sarah): “Okay, I’ll make you a deal. You go get my shoe box and I promise I won’t die.”

Kitty really does have a lot of shoes that she’d even put Carrie Bradshaw to shame.

Nora: “I never thought I’d say this but I’m glad your father cheated on me.”

Justin: “Sarah, this would be more fun if we could gang up on him.”
Sarah: “Kevin, you fight like a girl.”

Scotty and Rebecca hadn’t much to do in this one and Holly only had one scene this week. Plus, no David.

Nora: “So you’re gonna do it?”
Ryan: “Couldn’t let another kid grow up without a mother.”

Justin: “I can’t believe my sister’s sexual past is a part of our country’s history.”
Kitty: “It wasn’t all about the sex. That part only lasted a month.”

Standout music: “She Has No Time” by Keane.

Sarah (re Robert): “Nice metaphor.”
Nora: “I think it’s beautiful.”
Scotty: “I think I lost my place as favourite son in law.”
Kevin: “Definitely.”

Chronology: There was a three week time jump in the last five minutes of this episode.

“A Bone To Pick” definitely had it’s heavy moments and while it won’t wrap Kitty’s cancer storyline up in a neat little bow, it does manage to bring her out of the woods at least. From where she progresses storyline wise from here, is anyone’s guess.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

My Top 50 Doctor Stories Part 8

We're just two more off and with six days for The Eleventh Hour, I will get this list done with.

11: Turn Left (10th Doctor)

What if episodes are such a staple of any kind of series that you can predict exactly what will happen. A world where Donna Noble never interacted with the Doctor led to a dystopian future and while that was totally predictable, this is undeniably a superb episode. Rose's return was fine but it's Donna's episode from the off and Catherine Tate pulls in arguably the best performance from a companion actor in the show's 47 year history.

12: Earthshock (5th Doctor)

Companions can die in the series, only a few times and when even one who causes a divide like Adric can make his passing upset viewers who loathe him, you know you're onto something brilliant here. As for the Cybermen, well it was seven years since their last appearance and this one certainly more than made up for the absence.

13: Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday (10th Doctor)

For ultimate Doctor/Rose shippers, this was a sad story. I won't lie, I did cry at this one. But the truth is that now, I wouldn't. I did love Rose on the series but two seasons in, it made sense for Billie Piper to leave the series and she got a good exit. Plus RTD kept his tradition of big finales with a bloodbath between Daleks and Cybermen, who still got overshadowed by a certain scene on Bad Wolf Bay. And there was that nifty way of giving us Donna as well.

14: Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways (9th Doctor)

One of the best finales in all of the series and also a rather (in it's own way) understated way to depart Christopher Eccleston and briefly introduce David Tennant. The series of snogs between the Doctor/Rose/Jack were certainly interesting as was the way Rose exterminated all the Daleks. It's a pity that Nine didn't last longer but damn it, he went out on a high.

15: The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (1st Doctor)

They say sequels can never surpass the original. Erm, this is a rarity then, because The Dalek Invasion Of Earth is actually a lot better than The Daleks and it's got one less episode. Susan left with the Doctor giving her some interesting nuggets, London's under Dalek control and Barbara gets to smash one of the feckers with a truck. What else do you want?

Mind Where You Land That Thing (Doctor Who Season 5 Spoilers)

Oh look, another spoiler/analysis blog. Expect another on Tuesday as well.

Matt Smith made his first appearance on Jonathan Ross last night on BBC1 and while I wish that he had done the show with Karen Gillan, the interview was pretty good. Matt kept us mostly spoiler free (though he mentioned stuff about the TARDIS) and Jonathan certainly didn't hold his enthusiasm for the series back either.

The first few seconds of The Eleventh Hour got a showing on the BBC Red Button today and it was just the Doctor hanging for dear life and narrowly avoiding crashes with both O2 and Big Ben. Nice little set up moment there.

An extended trailer for last Friday's one showed us some more clips from The Beast Below with the Doctor and Amy both covered in goo, Amy defending herself against something rather nasty and a bunch of Smilers in booths. Now that was a creepy spectacle alright.

River Song (Alex Kingston) blowing a kiss before she's chucked out of a space ship. Blimey, the girl's a daredevil or she really is unable to kill. It'll interesting to see how she's get out of that one, that's for sure.

The Doctor finds himself surrounded by a group of slightly creepy girls who can't be seen in mirror and who don't like sunlight. We were shown an exclusive clip of Vampires In Venice last night and it's certainly got me intrigued for the episode big time. It's also extremely funny when he pulls out his library card and finds that it's really late. Like William Hartnell late people.

A few more clips also showed the Silurians rather vaguely, extended parts of the Doctor's threatening speech, gave us brief bits on the finale and the Van Gogh episodes but nothing too new with the Daleks or Cybermen. All this stuff - the previews, extended trailer and Matt Smith's interview can be seen here ...http://www.youtube.com/user/timelord50

Ashes To Ashes - Sports Relief/Season 3 Preview - Spoilers

April 2010 - Not one but two time travelling dramas. TARDIS travels are fun but so is watching a certain someone being stuck in 1983.

First off all, last week's Sport Relief segment to contend with ....

Not a huge fan of canned laughter and it certainly didn't help with the sketch, which was otherwise amusing. Spot all the cameos if you can and see how appreciative of a sporting figure Ray really is as well.

Sports Relief: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StjLCN9arCg

Gene (to Alex): Do you know I missed you but now that you're back, I'm getting all annoyed again?

The trailer for the new season aired last Friday and all the TV Guides this week have been plastering both Philip Glenister and Keeley Hawes all over the covers. Not that I'm complaining. Nice to see quality TV being pimped instead of the usual overflated drivel. And Glenister's comments on Simon Cowell are a little too spot on but that's a seperate issue.

Gene Hunt with Jim Keats (Daniel Mays). The latter is a prominent character in the third season and seems hell bent on putting Gene in his place. He's gonna need a lot of luck to pull that one off. I sense a bruise free groin slap coming his direction.

Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster) poses for a shot. I'm not too sure what's gonna happen with him this year. Do him and Shaz tie the knot? Here's hoping.

Shaz Granger (Montesserat Lombard) - Her hair seems to keep growing every season and there's the hint that her, Chris and Ray will discover some truths about themselves along with Alex and Gene.
Ray Carling (Dean Andrews) has gone from a character I previously couldn't stand to being quite sympathetic and endearing in this series.

And with the trailer, we saw Sam's file. Is it too much to even fanwank that John Simm could pop in the series? Should he? After all, while it would be nice to have real closure on Sam, this is Alex's story and she has to be of more importance than Sam to be fair. Matthew Graham said a lot of the loose ends will be resolved but not everything will be neatly resolved. Season 3 starts April 2nd 9pm on BBC1.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QElmmrc_iP0

My Top 50 Doctor Who Stories Part 7

With Season 5 due in the next nine days, I'm hoping to speed this list up.

16: Revelation Of The Daleks (6th Doctor)

Davros can get some pretty hit and miss moments in the series but for me, this is a fine story for him. He's at his ruthless best in this one with his solution for famine and his pithy black humour (actually the whole story is) works remarkably well for this one. Even the annoying DJ becomes someone to care about as he gets exterminated.

17: Logopolis (4th Doctor)

After seven years, Tom Baker's reign on the series had to come to an end. Okay, falling from a great big heigth might not be the best way to regenerate but the story is wonderful (if a tad complicated). You've got the Master getting used to his new body, a depature of a Doctor, Nyssa becoming a full time companion and the introduction of Tegan. Quite a busy story really.

18: Frontier In Space (3rd Doctor)

Another underrated story but one I recently acquired on DVD and enjoyed a lot. The Master and Daleks working together to cause war between Earth and Draconia. Jo Grant mentally outsmarting the Master as well as the Doctor being left in a rough state at the end. Yeah, this one certainly knew what to do with it's six episodes.

19: Survival (7th Doctor)

I know as series finales it's not perfect but it's actually better than some of the series enders for shows that had time and preparation to brings to an end. It's got the Master in one of his better stories, an interesting use of 'survival of the fittest' and the final exchange between the Doctor and Ace is a little too perfect for words.

20: The Invasion (2nd Doctor)

As Cybermen stories go, it's a bleeding classic even if you do have to wait halfway through the thing for them to show up. Even seeing the first and fourth episodes in animation doesn't deter the enjoyment of this one. And that scene where the Doctor is running from being shot at is quite funny. Plus the Brigadier and Benton for the win. And Jamie. And Zoe. And yes, Isobel tooo of course.

All This For A Mattress?

Okay, so South Park aren't renowned for their intelligent insight into the world of celebrity scandal. Their style of lampooning is crass to say the least but even I got a kick out of the recent episode where Tiger Woods sex addiction was royally taken the piss out of. Yeah, so there was too much emphasis on Butters obsession with a certain lady bit and the idea of aliens being responsible for men's growing sex addiction was silly. Still made for an entertaining 30 minutes though.

There are ways to end a generation of kids stories on Skins but the way chosen for the second batch left a bad taste in my mouth. Is it me or have the finales on this show gotten worse since the first one (which was excellent)? Last season's Cook-centred bore fest almost seemed better by comparison. Okay, Emily and Naomi made up and I could be less bothered with Thomas and Pandora but Cook found out that Effy's nutter of a shrink killed Freddie and the bloody thing ends, failing to detail whether or not nutty shrink bumped off Cook or got his just desserts. Thanks a bloody lot!

It's been a while since I've watched Family Guy and I know the episode I'm highlighting isn't recent but damn it, it's actually made me like Lauren Conrad a bit. Much as I despise The Hills and the idiots on that fecking show, at least Lauren had enough humour to allow the show to send her up in a way. Too bad that her brief fling with Brian ended up giving her worms. And Peter stooped a new low by killing Quagmire's cat. I'm recovering from the fact that a dog got killed in the new Lady Gaga video, I didn't need to see that.

I've caught up with recent episodes of Glee and yeah, I'm still here, I still like it. I'm not a Gleek but I have no disdain for the series either. That being said, I'm finding myself sympathising with characters like Terri and Sue more than the likes of Will, Rachel or Finn and I like Quinn and Puck all the more as the series has progressed. More interersting stuff than the race to the Sectionals has been the Mattress ad, seeing Sue's sister, the episode where they did the routine on wheelchairs and Artie and Tina's dynamic.

Another show I've caught up with - Grey's Anatomy. Do I miss the missing Izzie? Er, no, actually I don't. I also could do without seeing the Chief that much either or yet another triangle, even if it is with Christina/Owen/Teddy or Mark's somewhat annoying kid. I did however love seeing Miranda giving her father what for when he made the mistake to criticise her over the Christmas dinner table. And anything involving Callie and Arizona is better than most of the straight relationships on this show.

- Jennifer Beals has landed the lead on FOX drama, Ride Along.
- The next season of The Hills will be it's last. Thank fuck for that.
- There will some deaths in the season finale of Desperate Housewives. Also, expect another on screen appearance for Mary Alice in an upcoming episode.
- Matt Smith will be on Jonathan Ross tomorrow night on BBC1. The BBC have also revamped their website for the new series of Doctor Who.
- Katherine Heigl is leaving Grey's Anatomy this season, which makes me wonder why the writers just didn't kill Izzie off last year given that she's had naff all to do this year.
- The series finale of Lost will be called The End, according the series producers.

My Top 50 Doctor Who Stories Part 6

And we're onto Part 6.

21: Mindwarp (6th Doctor)

The only story from The Trial Of The Time Lord season that made it onto this list, mainly because it's the most traumatic one of the bunch. It's a little hard not to feel sorry for Peri, given the horrible fate bestowed upon her here. Even if it is retconned two stories later.

22: The Tomb Of The Cybermen (2nd Doctor)

Nowadays known as the favourite story of Matt Smith's. Well, that and the fact that as Cybermen stories go, it's bloody brilliant in every respect. Plus that conversation about family that the Doctor has with Victoria is something poignant.

23: The Daleks (1st Doctor)

I think if I had been a producer back in 1963, I would've made this one a four parter rather than the seven parter it was. However, it's a terrific debut for the Daleks and it's enough to see why 47 years later, they're still giving the Doctor the utmost of grief.

24: The Daemons (3rd Doctor)

One of the strangest stories involving the Master trying to use Azal for his own gains and yet again failing with that. This was a season that kept using the Master frequently and storyline wise, this was one of the strongest uses for him.

25: Castrovalva (5th Doctor)

Another strange Master related story, this one had him largely taking care of the Fifth Doctor in his vulnerable state while holding Adric prisoner as well. Plus there were some interesting references to past companions with this one. That seemed to become a recurring them as Six did that with Peri as well.

BBC America Trailer (Doctor Who Season 5 Spoilers)

The Doctor (to Amy): All of time and space. All that ever happened and ever will. Where do you want to start?

Same start with Amy outside the TARDIS and the Doctor holding onto her that we got with the third trailer on Friday but it's still good though.

Amy Pond investigates the Doctor and due to a recent rumour, it could be that her time with the Doctor goes into the sixth series as well. Awesome if true (oh let it be true).

The Doctor's expelling something - Time Lord energy but why? And in what episode? I don't recognise it. Wait, it looks like it's from The Eleventh Hour.

Amy's hugging the Doctor, she's in her jim-jams. This one I can guess as being from The Beast Below. A little reminder of the Doctor/Donna hugging from Midnight as well.

There's a masked lady - Sophie Okenedo's character? Maybe but going back to the first trailer released, it could be from the second two parter of the season. Very high possibility.

The Doctor is clearly lousy at hide and seek. That Dalek is totally gonna find him. More clips in the trailer show the attack on the Dalek as aggressive. I shouldn't condone violence but atta boy, Doctor.
The infamous gun shot comes from the River Song/Weeping Angels two parter if you look at the trailer carefully. River works the military look well though, doesn't she?

BBC America Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVUth0jmF-E

My Review of Brothers And Sisters 4x10: "Nearlyweds"

Written by Molly Newman And Michael J. Cinquemani
Directed by Laura Innes

Rebecca: “You said you were excited about the baby.”
Justin: “Okay, what was I suppose to say? By the time you told me, you made the decision for us.”
Rebecca: “Are you serious?”

And Rebecca and Justin’s inability not to argue for a long period continues. Of course it would. Like this wedding was ever going to go without a hitch. Oh wait, the wedding didn’t technically happen, did it?

Justin was thanking his lucky stars when a hurricane of all things put the kibosh on having to marry Rebecca in Hawaii and it didn’t take much for Saul to needle that little nugget out of him, even though it was Rebecca that he should’ve had that conversation with. Then again, it wasn’t the only conversation he should’ve had with her.

While it was productive for him to go to an AA meeting and admit that he recently gulped some champagne and had serious doubts of fatherhood and marriage, did David really have to be at that particular meeting? This is LA for flip sake. Surely David could’ve been at any other meeting rather than the one Justin attended.

That being said, I did get where David was coming from. He might have been a feckless father but he does seem genuinely concerned for Rebecca’s interest, especially given that she confided her pregnancy in him first and his rant at Justin could’ve been far worse than it actually was. All David basically said was for Justin to be honest with her. I can’t blame him for that.

But the problem is that Justin picks the worst ways of being honest. Last week, he and Rebecca had to get into a fight just so she could tell him that she was pregnant and this week another fight occurred just so that he could drop a triple bombshell on her lap – flunking med school, unsure of marriage, unsure of fatherhood.

Out of those three little clangers, the med school one generated the least worry from Rebecca. No, she was pretty upset over the last two and spent the rehearsal dinner being largely quiet until Justin’s absence forced her hand into telling the Walkers that there might not be a wedding.

In one of those ‘screaming at the TV’ moments, I was shouting for Rebecca to hold her horses. Yeah, Justin partly didn’t show up because he didn’t want to face but also because he got to play hero. Any other series would’ve had him either knock down that child or be knocked down but instead Justin was putting some of the medical skills he acquired to good use.

It seems that if Justin’s surgery aspirations are going to go down the pan, then a future as an EMT is likely to be a nice possibility. I liked seeing this side of Justin because no matter how he doesn’t seem to believe in his own capability, the writers occasionally throw him a lifeline to prove that he’s not as useless as he thinks he is.

A lot of people would’ve panicked when seeing the kid on the road. The driver who hit him certainly did but Justin stayed and kept talking to him. It was even because of this that he was able to put things with Rebecca into perspective. Now all the writers need is some perspective. If you want us to root for Rebecca and Justin, have them argue less.

That being said, the strangest thing was Holly. I can’t believe how level headed she was over things. Not taking her anger out on the Walkers, trying to convince Rebecca that Justin loved, even telling David to back off a bit. I hate to admit it, but she’s been sort of great in these last few episodes. It’s like we’ve entered a parallel universe with the character. It can’t last, right?

And as for the wedding disrupter – poor Kitty. There she was reciting a lovely poem for her brother and soon to be sister in law and she collapsed at the end. I know it was telegraphed as hell but damn it, it’s affecting stuff. As an audience member, I still have no doubt of Kitty actually beating cancer but her family don’t have that same knowledge.

This week, a lot of the scenes were her waiting for her results. You had Robert unwilling to go to Washington until he knew everything and when Kitty got them, she made the unwise decision to lie to him. Kitty’s results were worse but she didn’t want anything to ruin her brother’s wedding. Sweet but deeply unwise.

Robert and the Walkers themselves aren’t going to be pleased when they find out that Kitty withheld that information from them but only because they care about her well being. And once again, Calista Flockhart pulled in another fantastic performance with this episode.

As for Tommy, why oh why does he have to be stupid? Even if Kevin hadn’t made a phone call, did he really think he was going to get away with bringing Elizabeth to Justin’s wedding without Julia’s consent? Then again, this was the same who nearly ruined Ojai last season to get rid of Holly, so I suppose the answer has to be yes.

It’s like Julia’s an ogre. She would’ve said yes if Tommy had at least asked her and it’s not like Scotty had to work very hard in order to get her to allow Elizabeth at the wedding. I laughed at that little scene where Scotty joked about people who marry into the Walkers needing a support group, only because he’s right of course.

Plus it does seem to be the case that if Tommy isn’t at loggerheads with Justin, then it has to be with Kevin. Come to think of it, it’s been with Kevin more and more since the third season. Kevin was right in this episode, something which even Tommy sort of admitted by the end of the episode. Maybe next time, he’ll think before doing something stupid like that again. Well, here’s hoping.

Speaking of stupid, I knew the minute Nora gave Simon a big cheque that he’d suddenly be a no show at the wedding. I was kind of hoping that Simon would actually be a good guy for Nora but it does seem to be more the case of him being a conman and Sarah’s previous misgivings about him being justified. And all it took was four episodes for Simon to reveal his true colours.

Also in “Nearlyweds”

Robert was originally meant to officiate at the wedding but Saul stepped in when he went to Washington.

Justin (to AA meeting): “I’m not ready to be a father and I’m not even sure I’m ready to get married. I love her and I wanna be with her. I just wish I knew a way out of this.”

This episode was directed by Laura Innes. You’d think at this point, the producers would give the woman a role. I’m sure they could find something for her.

Robert (to Kitty): “See, it’s this. Just sitting together in a waiting room, both of trying to pretend we’re not scared. That’s love.”

Tommy: “Did they tell you how babies are made in medical school?”
Justin: “Can you not pick on me for two seconds?”

I have to admit that Justin looked good in his all white suit for his own wedding. They also picked a good bridal dress for Rebecca.

Nora: “You were the one pushing me to take a chance on happiness and all that.”
Sarah: “I was, wasn’t I?”

Kitty: “What if we just don’t answer it?”
Robert: “Then we’d never know.”
Kitty: “Would that be so terrible?”
Robert: “Just answer the phone.”

No Ryan in this episode, then again it would’ve been odd seeing him at the wedding given that Justin hates him. And Kitty wore a short wig in this one also.

Rebecca (to Holly, re Justin): “You should’ve seen his face. It’s like the walls are closing in on him. He can’t this or me or any of it.”

Julia: “I wanna trust Tommy, I do but every time I let him in, even a little bit, I end up getting hurt.”
Scotty: “Julia, you and I have a lot in common. There should be a support group for people who marry Walkers.”
Kevin: “Gee thanks.”

Standout music: Jen Still’s “These Days”.

Nora: “May I give you some advice?”
Justin: “Mom, it’s my wedding day. I think it’s pretty much required.”

Chronology: November/December 2009.

“Nearlyweds” isn’t quite as superb as the other wedding episodes we’ve had but it’s a bloody brilliant hour for the series and being objective, while certain plot elements have frustrated me a little, I do think that this season so far has been on a par with the first season and hopefully the second half of the year is even better than the good stuff we’ve had so far.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

Last Night All My Dreams Came True (Doctor Who Season 5 Trailer 3)

Amy: When I was a little girl, I dreamed of time and space. Last night all my dreams came true.

Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) hangs in the air as the third trailer has finally been released. Expect it to air on BBC1 during the weekend. There's no denying that this season is getting more and more intriguing by the second. And Matt Smith certainly showed that he commands authority as the Doctor in this one too. The Doctor (Matt Smith) is seen grabbing onto Amy's ankle and it looks like he fancies his new girlfriend, I mean companion. Oh, come on, it's getting ridiculously impossible not to ship these two, especially given that Karen made some comments about Rory (and I like him, but he's sounding like Mickey as well).

We know the Daleks are in the third episode of the season, have since August but they really do look quiute battered in this one. Even more so when the Doctor attacks one of them. I hope Mark Gatiss can do something amazing with the Daleks. Though I suspect that they'll be in the finale as well as this lot ...

The advantage of hanging out on GallifreyBase is that you end up knowing certain things in advance. Last month, I heard rumours about the Cybermen and now we see Amy defending herself with fire against one of them in the trailer. They too look a bit battered, don't you think?

The firs proper look of the new console for the fifth season. The TARDIS is about three times the size it's usually seen on screen (we even see a swing - check the first trailer if you don't believe). It's somewhat reminiscent of Paul McGann's TARDIS and that's not a bad thing.

Dog fights in space. There's been rumours in the past that RTD wanted to do that in past series but never got around to it. Clearly Steven Moffat has managed to find a way around that. I think it's Dalek ships there though.

Amy finds herself roped in by something unknown. What else is new? Stonehenge, Roman Centurions, the Doctor on horseback, Van Gogh (who we didn't see in the trailer), Silurians (another no show) and there was rumour of a Sontaran as well. Plus River appears for a nanosecond in this one as well. So remember people, April 3rd, 6.25pm on BBC1.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79VqFHvuJXA