The Power of Three

It’s important we focus on the fact that the first 30 minutes of this show is blisteringly good. Taking a breath to spend some quality time with Rory, Amy, The Doctor and the brilliant addition of Brian, is exactly what the show needs at this point. It’s a coda before the end.

The introduction of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and reintroduction of UNIT is brilliantly done, and used skilfully to ramp up the tension and mystery. Chibnall absolutely smashed it, delivering a really strong first half hour in what has been a mixed series so far.

The key mystery gets a good payoff. It would only need a bit of nipping and tucking to be a perfect story. Though one cannot ignore how ridiculously bad the baddie is. I know that they are having to edit around an uncooperative and incredibly unprofessional actor. But once you understand that the cubes were there to stake out an alien invasion you don’t really need much more. You could almost sub in any villain and make this story sing - it’s such a shame it couldn’t stick the landing.

This doesn’t overshadow how brilliant most of this episode is. Getting a final chance to see Matt Smith’s Doctor in normal life, which despite Closing Time I don’t think we’ve seen effectively handled since The Lodger. That clash of an extraordinary man in ordinary contexts is still as wonderful as it was in series 5.

The Doctor back in time and setting up “a date” for Amy and Rory is so sweet. I love the costumes! And that it’s interrupted by an offscreen Zygon.

It’s a shot of energy after A Town Called Mercy.

This did feel very RTD with the alien threat on Earth, UNIT, the news bulletins, the pop culture references etc. and that meant that it had both the good and bad aspects of his run.

I thought the overall plot and the way it was handled was a bit daft and the ending wasn't very good either but the Amy/Rory subplot was well done and it was very funny in parts.

This story is difficult to appraise at times. It's host to some genuinely compelling character drama focused on 11, Amy, and Rory; it has a really fun mystery going on; the slow invasion and the domestic scenes it allows are both enjoyable. It just really sucks that the episode crashes and burns at the final hurdle. This is generally attributed to behind-the-scenes drama. Could it have been worked around regardless? Maybe... but it'd be a rare director and producer who could actually pull that off, if so.

All things considered, it's worth noting that The Power of Three is still watchable despite this problem, and for all that it has a frustrating ending, I'd say it's still decent on the whole. It has its fair share of memorable moments and also does a pretty good job of setting up the Ponds' imminent departure.