Doctor Who Series 6: Part 1 Review (4.5/5)

Any season of Doctor Who is going to have its own unique strengths and shortcomings: the 2008 run had a truly epic finale but suffered from a handful of rubbish outings, while last year's series felt like a sensational 'Best Of', yet showed that Steven Moffat and his new production team were still finding their feet in some of the stories. As ever, this year's opening half had its fair share of gripes to pick at too, but what it can be immediatedly credited for is having the most ambitious story arc since the sci-fi returned in 2005, and quite possibly since it began airing in 1963. Over the course of just the first seven episodes, we've seen the Doctor gunned down by an impossible astronaut, then had our newly-wed Ponds travelling with a younger version of him, carrying the knowledge of his future demise and unaware that somewhere in time and space is a little girl who can regenerate, and whose name- Melody Pond- has quite a different meaning in another language- River Song...To say that viewers had to pay more attention this time around is an understatement, however Moffat and co proved with Series Five that there's always a brilliant pay-off at the end, and I would be amazed if that didn't prove the case when Series Six returns this Autumn. The only notable problem with the series split is that, for now, it's hard to get a complete grasp on the overall quality of the season, with The Curse of the Black Spot and The Almost People proving jarring steps back from an otherwise flawless running narrative and episodes like the opening two-parter and A Good Man Goes To War really requiring us to see what's coming before we can pass a total verdict on them. This perhaps sounds as if I'm saying Doctor Who's come back worse off than it was in 2010, but that couldn't be further from the truth! Matt Smith, Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill give stunning performances throughout as the travelling Time Lord and his increasingly doubting companions, and we've already had lots of great guest turns from the likes of Hugh Bonneville (Captain Avery), Suranne Jones (Idris) and the ever-brilliant Alex Kingston (River), plus aside from the Siren (who did little but stand and menace the pirates) the round-up of new villains has been superb, so there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this season is going to turn out just as well, if not better than what's come before it. All that remains is for Steven Moffat to bring us another run of consistently smashing episodes from September, and if Episode 8's title of Let's Kill Hitler is any indication, we're in for a heck of a ride...Also on the DVD and Blu-Ray set, out on the 11th of July, are interesting snippets from Confidential pieced together to bring us fact files on creepy new monsters the Silence and the Gangers. Perhaps hold off until the full boxset is available with A Christmas Carol and more extras, but if you missed an episode or want to catch up (I think we all need to!) then look no further- weekend rentals don't get much better than this!