Poll: Rate & Review The Power Of Three

[The Doc]

What are your thoughts on this story? Rate and review it in here.

[Aneurin]

Here is the official synopsis for this episode.

There have been many ways to invade the Earth, and the Doctor has seen them all. Or so he always thought - and then the human races wakes up one morning and discovers the world has been overrun by... small black cubes, which then proceed to... do nothing at all. A plan is afoot, humanity is endangered - but by what and how and, above all, when? For the first time in his world-saving career the Doctor has to call upon the least of his virtues: patience. And the Ponds face something possibly more terrifying than any world-ending apocalypse - the Doctor is moving in!

[poprockgeek]

This episode is on at the slightly earlier time of 7.30pm ... apparently.

[Vampyros Adric]

Well, no need for a re-watch here. This was your definitive slow burner. It started with a domestic scene that would grace any soap opera. Indeed, it had a different feel to anything seen since Jackie and Rose at their finest. But this was no mere emotional filler - this was clearly setting us up for next week (whatever it may hold).

But the episode really got into its stride when UNIT got involved and from therein we were treated to a breathless, if well trodden sci-fi story. There was tension, menace, humour and rather fabulous space ship effect (the Mill have gotten so much better at dealing with HD special effects). Berkoff played his role well and there was a couple of lovely little bits of nostalgia.

Chris Chibnall has produced two wonderfully thoughtful episodes of Who this series. Despite my misgivings he is a very fine writer and has done us proud. This story, based around a simple premise, was all about the layers of character. Rory, Amy, Brian and of course the Doctor. This was a true ensemble piece and I loved every second of it. Another 5/5 from me and series 7 is proving to be rather special

[hannahcole93]

Definitely a 5 from me! No question about it! I can see myself happily rewatching this over and over!

[Nyki]

I think I'm going to hold off voting till I've rewatched this.  Overall, I loved the idea, but I found it rather bitty, especially early on - my immediate feeling was they were trying to shoehorn too much into the story.  I'll see how well it works on a second viewing.

[DAK]

I gave it a 4.  I enjoyed this episode of Chibnall's much more than his previous 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship'.  I wish the ending hadn't been so quick; I would have liked to find out more behind the motivation for wiping out the population of Earth.  Also, hadn't the people who'd been killed by the cubes been dead too long to be resuscitated?

Oh, and Matt Smith with his shirt torn open?  Rawr!   

[Vampyros Adric]

As with the other episodes, a re-watch only serves to re-emphasize what a great episode this was. IMHO it actually worked better on the re-watch so I could pick up all of the subtleties within this wonderful character piece.

In the re-watch I picked up a few little "Sherlockian" styling nods: the months (June and July) floating in the picture (like the text messages in "A Study in Pink") and the very fast (even for modern TV) editing. The mixture of humour and meance tended to be a little skewed towards the humour but it worked well in the context of the episode and, once again, Murray Gold produced a highly appropriate score (if slightly less spectacular then his tour de force in 'A Town Called Mercy')

Having Steven Berkoff play the Shakri is a bit like using a Ferrari Formula 1 car to nip to the shops but nonetheless, he added sufficient camp and menace to make even a small cameo enjoyable. The casting of Mark Williams, however, is proving inspired. He has made the whole "Pond" family click and with every scene I find myself wishing he'd been introduced in The Eleventh Hour! If two wonderful guest stars wasn't enough, we were treated to Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, in one of the most beautifully judged nods to the Who backstory we have seen.

The resolution of the slow invasion (as pointed out by DAK above) was a bit feeble (Doctor waggles his screwdriver at the ship and all is well) but surprisingly, this actually doesn't grate on me too much. The alien invasion was very much the 'B' story in this episode. The real resolution came with Brian, Amy, Rory and the Doctor round the dinner table.

Another wonderful story that is even more poignant in the context of what is to come. Series 7 is shaping up to be the best series of Who since the 2005 reboot. And now, on to Manhatten for a teary exit for some old friends.

[Peri-Peri]

I'm going slightly insane this morning. Power outage last night means that neither Sky box recorded and now this morning I cannot get iPlayer to work

[Joshua]

Another great episode, although I thought it was all satisfied a little too quickly/easily.

Definitely works well as a set up for next week, whatever happens.

However, like all of S7, although I've enjoyed every episode there haven't been any I've loved or wanted to run back and rewatch. 4/5 for now, but I'll wait to rewatch before voting

[DAK]

I'm going slightly insane this morning. Power outage last night means that neither Sky box recorded and now this morning I cannot get iPlayer to work

Oh no!     Bittorrent?

[Miss Wright]

I thought this was a nice episode. 4/5 for me. No body taking themselves too seriously, but at the same time, plenty serious, with some good humor. It left me very excited for next week, as if I wasn't enough all ready!

I am truly surprised no one has mentioned Rory in his underwear. So here goes: Rory in his underwear!!! 

[ardalyon]

I'm wavering between a 3 and a 4 again, but this time I think I will mark it down to a 3.

Why? Let's go in chronological reverse order. The ending, as Adric and Joshua both say, was weak -- a chunk of exposition delivered so fast you could barely follow it and then Matt Smith waves his screwdriver like a magic wand and hey presto! all is right with the world. There is too much sonicking these days. You almost get the feeling that the screwdriver ought to be given a show of its own.
Next, what were the guys with the noses up to? They were satisfyingly scary, but I still don't know why they are really there. My suspicion is that they are only there so that there is a reason for there to be a portal to the spaceship, since otherwise there seems to be no reason for the portal to be there either. And why hasn't anybody noticed a girl sitting in a hospital waiting room for a year?
Next, although the idea of a slow invasion was clever, the pace was "breakneck" and had extremly fast and choppy editing as Adric said. For my taste, this was too breakneck and too choppy. And for me Matt Smith, who usually judges these things quite nicely, ended up seeming too demented and over the top.
I actually thought the high point was Rory's father. Just loved the fact that he had sat watching a cube for a year!

[DAK]

There is too much sonicking these days. You almost get the feeling that the screwdriver ought to be given a show of its own.

LOL, give them time...

Next, what were the guys with the noses up to? They were satisfyingly scary, but I still don't know why they are really there. My suspicion is that they are only there so that there is a reason for there to be a portal to the spaceship, since otherwise there seems to be no reason for the portal to be there either.

I'd wondered about them too, and what were they doing collecting humans if they were going to wipe them all out anyway?  At first I thought they were taking readings to learn about human anatomy and how to kill, but they'd already learned all that from the cube readings.

[Coconut-CocaCola]

Well, as for me I choose 2/5.
The story was very intriguing, I loved the frequent allusions to the classic series and I'm glad they have introduced Kate Stewart (I didn't even know the brig had a daughter ).
And when we got to the villain (even if it was just an hologram) I found his background great, with the Gallifreyan's myth reference. At this point, I would have rated the show 5 stars, but when the Doctor saved the world by only playing with his screwdriver... I really wasn't impressed.

[The Cyber Mistress]

I've watched this twice now and I still can't make my mind up about how I feel about it. I think they spent far too long setting up the story to spend only a few minutes in the depth of it and then pay it off with an easy get-out. It felt a bit lazy. As the story went I quite enjoyed it, but it felt like a short story that they spread out to cover 45 minutes when 20 would have done. If I was rating it now I would probably give it a 2 or a 3.

[Scott]

I'm giving this episode a three. I wanted to rate it higher but I just don't think it deserved it. I think some of the plotting was really sloppy and the ending was far too rushed, which is a shame because a lot of the earlier episode was wasted on nothing. It could have been brilliant but it just wasn't.

[Exterminate]

Three from me. There was enough good in there to make it enjoyable but enough plot holes and bad pacing to warrant marking it down. It's a long way from being the best or worst I have seen since the show returned and so I think three is fair.

[Nyki]

Four from me.  Much the same assessment as Exterminate, but I loved some of the good points enough to give it the benefit of the doubt.

[Blazin Goliath]

I've been bouncing around numbers to give this one, and I've finally settled with a three. While it did wonderful with showing dynamics between Amy, Rory, and the Doctor, the invasion was just too rushed and plothole-filled for the episode to be incredibly interesting.