Doctor Who Series Blog – The Power of Three

Who would have thought we’d see the day when the Doctor became domesticated? When you’re in possession of a time machine, you’re unlikely to be transfixed with playing the Wii… yet that’s just what Saturday’s episode had in store for us.
As Amy points out in the beginning of The Power of Three, life with the Doctor usually goes at a million miles an hour, hopping from one place in time and space to the next; always being chased by hostile aliens or trying to save important figures from Earth’s past. Amy and Rory’s lives on Earth, in comparison, run at a far more pedestrian pace, perhaps even elderly-lady-crossing-the-road sort of speed. So, when the Doctor comes to stay, it’s precisely four hours before his patience snaps with the dreariness of Earth.
Even more unusual for an episode of Doctor Who is the fact that it’s entirely focused upon Earth’s present. Normally, a quick jaunt to the Middle Ages might be in order, or perhaps a century into the Earth’s future to witness an alien invasion. Maybe this is why the timing of this episode was so very wrong.
For starters, it’s a year before anything actually happens. One day the cubes land on Earth, but it’s only when a year has passed that everything goes haywire. So we skip through months, focusing on anything important pertaining to the cubes. Great. No running, no guns and no exterminator rays. Talk about taking excitement out of the frame. Humanity becomes accustomed to the cubes; they collect them, arrange them and even ignore them. They become part of the furniture, like that hideous pair of curtains you’ve just learnt to live with. No wonder it was called the year of the slow invasion, though slow doesn’t quite cover it.
The cubes may need a year to study humanity, to discover its habits, weaknesses, secret documents and even study its biology, but come on! At least bung a Dalek in there for a bit of life-threatening danger! The episode’s one saving grace however is Brian, Rory’s Dad. Charged with the responsibility of observing cubes night and day, his video log is just an opportunity to say that absolutely nothing has happened. He even spends four days on his own in the T.A.R.D.I.S because the Doctor told him to watch the cubes.
Although, when the cubes cause widespread heart failure, things liven up quite considerably, (millions of people across the world dying simultaneously will have that effect). It leads the Doctor to a worm hole that subsequently leads to a space ship overlooking Earth. Now, this is where the episode went further downhill. The orchestrator behind the cubes turns out to be a creature that the Doctor believed to be a mere myth. However, he’s not actually on the ship; it’s a hologram. Debate over the merits of humanity ensues before the incredibly wrinkled creature disappears. A few waves of the sonic screwdriver later and the energy the cubes took is directed into restarting people’s hearts.
A typical ending, you might think; the impossible occurs and the day is saved. Some might agree with you, but when you bear in mind that this world saving rescue is sorted within about three minutes, all that built up tension falls a bit flat. Imagine a bouncy castle being inflated, and when it’s fully inflated it suddenly deflates and flops down again. That’s what this episode feels like.
My other bugbear is the constant and inescapable hinting at the Pond’s inevitable departure from the show. We all know that this is the last series with the feisty Karen Gillan and submissive male extraordinaire Arthur Darvill, but for goodness sake, just get on with the action! Rory and Amy agree that at some point they are going to have to choose between pedestrian life and life with the Doctor; the two cannot coexist without harming each other. I will be devastated when they do leave, but for now can we leave the puppy dog eyes and quivering bottom lips to later on?
Overall, The Power of Three fell a bit short of the expectations. Moffat had better step his game up for the next instalment.