#dws7

Amy Pond #11,123

Clara Oswald #25,952

Eleventh Doctor #38,473

River Song #2,483

Rory Williams #6,916

I love that for the first 15 minutes or so, the main characters are essentially the Patternoster gang, and honestly I think they could have increased that even further. They each bring something to the team, and even Strax gets to use his gun a few times, and I love just how delighted he is about that.

It's an episode that doesn't take itself seriously (Thomas Thomas, for example) and so just gets on with being ridiculous, campy fun. I'm not a huge fan of the Doctor's tone of humorous delivery in this era, but I think it actually works in the context of this episode.

On top of that, you get a really dark undercurrent of this abusive mother who's also a eugenicist, which manages to hit both poignant and humorous notes successfully. Diana Rigg is clearly having a lot of fun as a villain (and I love the Emma Peel homage when Jenny gets into her fighting suit), and I just adore Rachel Stirling. She brings the note of poignancy of an abused daughter, that manages not to feel out of place in this otherwise gloriously campy and over the top episode. She and her mother are very believable as mother and daughter, because they actually are, and it's a delight to see.

Angie

Artie

Clara Oswald (Young)

Elle Oswald

Great Intelligence

Jenny

Kate Stewart

Madame Vastra

Strax

Ada Gillyflower (The Crimson Horror) #1,317

Alec Palmer (Hide) #1,892

Alexei (The Bells of Saint John) #418

Bram Van Baalen (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS) #235

Captain (Nightmare in Silver) #717

Captain Zhukov (Cold War) #815

Darla (Asylum of the Daleks) #439

Dockery (A Town Called Mercy) #639

Emma Grayling (Hide) #2,652

Gregor Van Baalen (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS) #956

Hila (Hide) #371

Isaac (A Town Called Mercy) #952

Kahler-Mas (A Town Called Mercy) #822

Lt. Stepashin (Cold War) #317

Merry Gallel (The Rings of Akhaten) #2,444

Miss Kizlet (The Bells of Saint John) #788

Mrs. Gillyflower (The Crimson Horror) #1,343

Nefertiti (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) #1,081

Porridge (Nightmare in Silver) #1,357

Professor Grisenko (Cold War) #922

Riddell (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) #616

Solomon (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) #492

The Gunslinger (A Town Called Mercy) #689

Tricky (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS) #626

Webley (Nightmare in Silver) #257

Weeping Angels (The Angels take Manhattan) #105

  oh my god oh my god oh my god I absolutely loved...

the extra regen energy would also explained just how explosive Elevens regeneration was, it wasnt anything the Doctor /needed/ to regenerate, so it was just extra power to burn after triggering the actual regeneration

When I first saw this episode, I absolutely adored it, which I still do, apart from the Doctor being a weird creeper at the start, but that's another story.

The inconsistency I'm most confused about is this: Merry said that the song had gone wrong and that's what she thought was the reason for her being sucked towards the rock with the mummy, meaning this is unexpected and unprecedented. The chorister is confused and so are the audience. When Merry is sucked towards the mummy, she doesn't know what's happening, so this is obviously not what usually happens at this ceremony.

And yet, when the vigil comes, she knows what they are doing there and she says they come when the Queen of Years is unwilling to be feasted upon. So, all of a sudden, the Queen of Years is meant to be sacrificed? Surely if this had ever happened before, then she would know about it, being the oracle of their civilisation's history?

Also, the resolution is a bit shit. They couldn't have known the leaf would be too much. If they knew that for certain, so would the old god and if it knew that the leaf would kill it, then it wouldn't have consumed it...

Still, at least the music's pretty.