I don't really have much to add to the previews review on this page, except that I would like to mention a few of my favorite lines from these shorts. Steven Moffat appears to have a predilection for misleading titles ("Let's Kill Hitler", anyone?), so maybe it should come as no surprise that "Bad Night" is actually the more humorous short ("Rory! She's having an emotion!"), while "Good Night" is the more melancholy and haunting one ("Time is being re-written all around us every day"). "First Night" / "Last Night" fill in some information about the Doctor and River Song (we learn that she got the catchphrase "Spoilers!" from him, for example - of course, he probably got it from her as well!). "Up All Night" does not really belong with the other four shorts; it really is a prequel to "Closing Time". Personally I'm not a fan of this episode and its main guest character, but he does get one spot-on line: "Don't say "What could possibly go wrong"! Don't you know that everything will go wrong when you say that?". On the whole, these little tales are done with characteristic Moffat ingenuity, and are worth (well, four of them, anyway) repeated viewings. *** out of 4 as a whole.
3 Reviews
The Series 6 DVD is already an essential purchase but these make it unmissable.
zacpetch18 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
These five shorts are supplementary to the sixth series DVD boxset and as such very few people know that they exist. Which is a shame, the DVD is worth getting for these alone.
'Bad Night' is probably the funniest of the lot which is saying something. It begins with Amy answering the TARDIS phone to an unnamed Prince of Wales and then the Doctor enters with a goldfish, revealed to be an unnamed queen, from a night out gone wrong with River Song. It's one of the moments that displays exactly what defines the Eleventh (and best) Doctor with Moffat's trademark wit and humour paired with Smith's perfect delivery making for an inimitable level of brilliance.
'Good Night' is the best of the five and follows a similar theme in that it's a brief humorous exchange between Amy and the Doctor at night aboard the TARDIS. It's the obligatory emotional segment as we learn about the saddest night of Amy's life was when she dropped her ice cream as a child at a fare and now she's going to go back in time and cheer herself up. (All together now... TIMEY-WIMEY!!!)
'First Night / Last Night' is a two-parter about the Doctor taking River Song for a date only for three of her get confused enough to enter the same TARDIS and the Doctor is accused by each (unaware of each other) of cheating with someone else. It's very funny but does often stray into juvenile innuendo territory which drags it down a bit, but it's saved because Moffat's signature timey-wimey is on display. It's one of his most creative works, which is saying a lot! There's also a sad element to it as one of the River Songs is going to go next to The Library where she will die.
'Up All Night' is the weakest of the shorts but that's more by default than anything else. It doesn't feature the Doctor or his companions at all instead putting the spotlight onto Craig Owens and girlfriend Sophie ahead of the events of 'Closing Time' and acts as a prequel to that episode with the ominous flashing lights featuring prominently. James Corden is great here delivering a nice little monologue of sorts about his fears of fatherhood and worrying that he may "break" his son. It's a very disposable two minutes that we didn't really need to include here but still good.
These five shorts are unique to the series 6 DVD boxset. They make what is already an essential purchase unmissable. Five great shorts that are hard to flaw, the only problems would be the innuendos of 'Last Night' and the lack of necessity of 'Up All Night' but these are both very minor issues when you consider the quality of what we have here. 10/10
'Bad Night' is probably the funniest of the lot which is saying something. It begins with Amy answering the TARDIS phone to an unnamed Prince of Wales and then the Doctor enters with a goldfish, revealed to be an unnamed queen, from a night out gone wrong with River Song. It's one of the moments that displays exactly what defines the Eleventh (and best) Doctor with Moffat's trademark wit and humour paired with Smith's perfect delivery making for an inimitable level of brilliance.
'Good Night' is the best of the five and follows a similar theme in that it's a brief humorous exchange between Amy and the Doctor at night aboard the TARDIS. It's the obligatory emotional segment as we learn about the saddest night of Amy's life was when she dropped her ice cream as a child at a fare and now she's going to go back in time and cheer herself up. (All together now... TIMEY-WIMEY!!!)
'First Night / Last Night' is a two-parter about the Doctor taking River Song for a date only for three of her get confused enough to enter the same TARDIS and the Doctor is accused by each (unaware of each other) of cheating with someone else. It's very funny but does often stray into juvenile innuendo territory which drags it down a bit, but it's saved because Moffat's signature timey-wimey is on display. It's one of his most creative works, which is saying a lot! There's also a sad element to it as one of the River Songs is going to go next to The Library where she will die.
'Up All Night' is the weakest of the shorts but that's more by default than anything else. It doesn't feature the Doctor or his companions at all instead putting the spotlight onto Craig Owens and girlfriend Sophie ahead of the events of 'Closing Time' and acts as a prequel to that episode with the ominous flashing lights featuring prominently. James Corden is great here delivering a nice little monologue of sorts about his fears of fatherhood and worrying that he may "break" his son. It's a very disposable two minutes that we didn't really need to include here but still good.
These five shorts are unique to the series 6 DVD boxset. They make what is already an essential purchase unmissable. Five great shorts that are hard to flaw, the only problems would be the innuendos of 'Last Night' and the lack of necessity of 'Up All Night' but these are both very minor issues when you consider the quality of what we have here. 10/10
What the Doctor does at night
Horst_In_Translation19 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This is a little add-on to the famous "Doctor Who" time travel televisions series. It consists of 5 very short episodes and runs for a total of 16 minutes roughly. I myself have not seen the series, but I cannot say that this mini-series got me motivated to do so. I found the first 4 episodes had really weak female actresses and it's embarrassing to think of they also play major characters in the show. Karen Gillan was especially cringeworthy. The fifth and final episode did not even include the doctor, at least not in a way that we see him. It's tough to say which of these clips was the best and which the weakest, but all of them weren't really good. I'd only recommend this to hardcore fans of the television show. It's neither funny nor dramatically relevant.
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