Eye-patches are most certainly cool

So there we are! The Doctor managed to avoid his death at Lake Silencio by hiding himself inside the shape-shifting Tesselecta that we first met in 1930s Berlin. For those of you that don’t watch the Saturday tea-time drama that is _Doctor Who_ (BBC1), this will obviously make no sense to you whatsoever. But for those avid followers of the alien time-traveller, it’s now time to put down your replica sonic screwdriver toys, hang up your tweed jackets and reflect upon the series that has just recently concluded.

As a whole, the series has been one of the best in terms of quality. The death of the future Doctor which first featured in the series premiere (The Impossible Astronaut) acted as the overarching plot to this series. It certainly was one of the better series arcs of the rebooted _Doctor Who_ and managed to remain thoroughly gripping.
However, with the Doctor cheating a supposedly fixed death, inevitably the denouement is bound leave some viewers themselves cheated of a proper resolution.

In some ways, the Doctor’s death, the obscurity of River Song’s identity and Amy’s pregnancy overshadowed the standalone episodes, which felt almost throwaway and not relevant to the series storyline. Episodes like The Curse of the Black Spot where the Doctor encountered a killer mermaid on a pirate ship or Night Terrors where the Doctor faced life-sized dolls, were slightly tedious and dull when compared to, for example, the jaw-dropping reveal that River Song was in fact Amy and Rory’s daughter.

And you could not help but feel that the two-parter which saw a second Doctor form out of some alien matter (The Rebel Flesh, The Almost People) was somewhat thin when it came to its plot. The established act of running down darkened corridors no longer cuts the mustard and it seemed as if the story was merely building up to the reveal that the Amy on the TARDIS was a flesh avatar and the real Amy was in fact giving birth in front of an eye-patched wearing midwife.

However, if we ignore these average episodes, overall series six has provided us with innovative and complex storylines. The Doctor’s Wife especially sticks out as a classic. Written by Neil Gaiman, it featured Suranne Jones as the personification of the TARDIS. Only on _Doctor Who_ could Steve McDonald’s ex-wife from Corrie take the form of a time-travelling machine, and for it to receive rave reviews from critics and viewers alike.

Not only have majority of the storylines been of a high calibre, but also the performances of the main cast have been captivating and convincing. Matt Smith has really grown into the role as the Doctor. He acts more alien and thus more like a Timelord than David Tennant ever did.

His role is also enhanced by the extremely talented Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Alex Kingston, who never seem to be wooden or unbelievable. Especially Gillan, whose performance in The Girl Who Waited was genuinely Emmy-worthy. It’s all really a stark contrast to Freema Agyeman and Billie Piper, who through no fault of their own, collectively spent three whole series pining over the Doctor like two teenage schoolgirls.

The production values of _Doctor Who_ are now to such a high-quality that it feels like a Hollywood film is being compacted into forty-five minutes for Saturday night viewing. However, one issue that hasn’t changed over these past six series of _Doctor Who_ is the incidental music, which more often that not is far too loud and detracts from the engaging performances of the cast.

Barring a few tedious episodes, this series has really impressed. Yes, at times it was somewhat complicated and did rattle viewer’s brains, but that’s what sci-fi should do. The storylines this year have been far more engaging than the tired format of David Tennant’s Doctor destroying all the Daleks in the universe for the umpteenth time.

_Doctor Who_ won’t return to our screens until the latter part of next year and with no British television drama like this time-travelling show, fans now face a very long wait for the next series.