The second part of series six suffered a stuttering start with the risible Let's Kill Hitler! Had Doctor Who jumped the shark? The question was immediately answered by the triumvirate: Night Terrors, The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex. Each episode building on the central theme of the Doctor's impending death with humour and wit.
The sumptuous and teary-eyed The Girl Who Waited eclipsed Neil Gaiman's excellent The Doctor's Wife. Karen Gillan delivers an acting tour de force as the older Amy Pond and the Doctor takes a backseat (for the majority of the episode) as life aboard the TARDIS is deconstructed to cold, brutal, effect. Plaudits also to Arthur Darvill as the long suffering Rory Williams.
Closing Time brought brevity to proceedings and witnessed the return of the Cybermats in a Cyber story reminiscent of the Patrick Troughton era. Children will be asking for Cybermat toys this Christmas.
Series 6, more than any other from the current run, distills what I adore about Doctor Who; the alien, the wonder and inherent darkness of the unknown, and an ensemble worthy of the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan.
