By Will Barber – Taylor

Amy Pond: Because they pull at each other. Because they pull at me, and because the travelling is starting to feel like running away.

The Doctor arrives on Earth to find that the planet if filled with small, black cubes. Enlisting the help of the Ponds, Brian Williams and UNIT, The Doctor must discover the truth of the cubes before time runs out.

As a huge Doctor Who fan, I found The Power of Three disappointing in comparison to the excellent A Town Called Mercy. Unlike Town it does not really have a plot, more like a bunch of good ideas thrown together. Sadly, the good ideas accumulate into a rather boring and shaky plot which is simply there to highlight the fact that Amy and Rory want to stop travelling.

When the reason for the cubes is eventually revealed it does seems a bit stupid.  The   Shakri (Steven Berkoff) is a bemused portrayal of a character who does not seem to know whether he is the villain of the piece or not.  In fact, he is one of the oddest villains the show has ever produced. Hopefully, Berkoff will return but not as the Shakri.

Jemma Redgrave is excellent in this episode as Kate Stewart, the new leader of UNIT.  Redgrave is truthful to the part, bouncing well off Matt Smith’s Doctor. Though, rather like Berkoff, she is very much under used.  Redgrave gives depth to the character she is depicting and therefore is believable as the daughter of the Brigadier. Interestingly, Redgrave’s performance mirrors Nick Courtney’s, particularly the walk she uses.   Hopefully, she will return and have much larger parts in future programmes.

All in all, The Power of Three was an interesting episode but not always for the right reasons. Hopefully, when Chibnall next writes for Doctor Who, he will write a more coherent plot rather than a bunch of very thinly connected scenes.

NEXT TIME…

The Angels Take Manhattan

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