The Power of Three Review

On Saturday, we saw another Lodger-type episode with a hint of the RTD era in The Power of Three. But did this fair well with me? Time to find out...

Overview

An extremely good episode in terms of emotional themes but the alien threat wasn't tied up enough. Whether, this was deliberate or not, I think a hint about this would have faired well.

Continuity

The Power of Three was almost faultless for continuity, although for this type of an episode, there wasn't actually that many continuity points. However, here are the ones I noticed:

• The Doctor stayed on Earth with humans for a while (The Lodger)
• UNIT returned but played a background role, which I liked (The Christmas Invasion, The Sontaran Strategm, The Poison Sky etc)
• A slight error I noticed was in Asylum of the Daleks, the Pond's got divorced but in this episode they are seen celebrating their wedding anniversary... So did they get re-married off screen?
• The Zygons were mentioned.

Story Arc

The 'Doctor Who?' arc remained absent throughout this episode but the episode was overall, a prequel to The Angels Take Manhattan so were we given clues as to how the Ponds leave, but we just haven't noticed them?

Story

The Cube story was fairly average and we were all waiting for the big point of the story but sadly it never came. Also, the cube threat was destroyed by a wave of the sonic screwdriver?! The most poor resolution to a story I have seen in a long while.

Problems

Along with the problems I mentioned above (rubbish conclusion, Pond marriage error, too many loose ends), although I did say I quite liked UNIT taking a back seat in this episode, I feel the soldiers could have made more of an appearance.

Shakri

The Shakri were a great invention by Chibnall and I liked the reference to Gallifrey in their background but with a great actor playing the Shakri I feel they could have made more of an appearance and to be honest, the Shakri were wasted in a way in this episode.

Emotional Impact

This episode wasn't really about the alien threat, more about emotional impact and the lead up to the Pond's exit in The Angels Take Manhattan. I liked that part and I think it will make their exit even more dramatic and saddening.

Conclusion

Monsters - 3/5 - Alien threat took a back seat in this episode but the concept of the Shakri was liked by me.

Story - 2/5 - Felt quite rushed towards the end and the conclusion was rubbish, and it could have been more fully explained if bits like the Pond's anniversary gift adventures were left out. However, the beginning of the story was great.

Doctor - 5/5 - Yet another faultless performance from Matt Smith and he finally got to play 'pain' in this episode, which he is very good at.

Companion - 5/5 - Amy and Rory were fantastic characters in this episode and I really don't want to see them leave now...

Arc - 4.5/5 - Great as the episode was a lead up to the Pond exit arc but no reference to 'Doctor Who?' let it down a little bit.

Continuity - 4/5 - Good but the Pond's marriage error and not including many continuity points in an episode like this wasn't a great move

The Power of Three (overall) - 23.5/30 - Great

So that's it for my The Power of Three review. I hope you enjoyed reading it and agreed with me on most points.

Next Week - The Angels Take Manhattan

Overall Mark Comments

30 - Outstanding

25 - 29.5 - Fantastic

20 - 24.5 - Great

15 - 19.5 - OK, nothing special

10 - 14.5 - Bad, very poor

5 - 9.5 - Shocking, turned off after 10 minutes

1.5 - 4.5 - Worst thing to be shown on TV ever

0 - 1 - Doctor Who is over