Doctor Who – The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat, 2013)

23/11/13, The Day of the Doctor, has finally arrived. Happy 50th birthday Doctor Who!

I will openly admit to anyone how much I love Doctor Who, although recently I’ve felt like it’s gone slightly downhill. So as I settled down with my KFC to watch the 50th anniversary episode, I was half excited and half nervous, in a way. Steven Moffat had the chance to completely ruin Doctor Who, and if I’m honest, I was fully expecting him to.

Thankfully, he didn’t! Even though Gallifrey was never destroyed like everyone has believed for the past fifty years, Moffat didn’t change too much of the Doctor Who past, which I was worried he’d do. Instead, he changed the future, and has actually set up a good few more series just with this one storyline, should he wish to.

Although my original response was that it was a disappointing episode, I’ve thought back on it and actually it wasn’t that bad; it was more of an anticlimax, particularly with all the hype around the episode. Having said that, I loved all the special Doctor Who programmes the BBC showed in the run up to the 50th anniversary… particularly Never Mind The Buzzcocks with David Tennant as the host. David Tennant, to me, will always be the ‘real’ doctor, just as 70s children, like my parents, would say it’s undoubtedly Tom Baker. Luckily for them, Baker made an appearance at the end of the episode as a slightly quirky, mild-mannered gallery curator.

I didn’t fully understand how Zygons fit into the episode at all; it came across as almost disjointed, like two separate episodes which had been badly put together. The supposed ‘queen of England’ was played by Joanna Page, a brilliant Welsh actress… but personally I think this was a terrible choice. Why does the queen of England have such a blatant Welsh accent?
The rest of the casting, though, was great. John Hurt played a convincing doctor, and the return of Billie Piper was clever; many Doctor Who fans had been complaining about the return of Rose (me included), as it shouldn’t be possible. When I realised she was just an image for the weapon of mass destruction’s ‘conscience’, I understood. This was well played by Steven Moffat, as it created hype amongst ‘Whovians’, along with the rest of the British public. Doctor Who is such a timeless British classic – I’d be interested to find out the viewing figures.

My favourite thing about the episode was definitely the chemistry between Matt Smith and David Tennant. Their personalities melded together perfectly, and seeing them both together, the way each of them portrays the doctor, summarised my ‘Doctor Who’ childhood (and adolescence).

The Reichenbach Fall – how did Sherlock fake his own death?

The third and final episode of series two of Sherlock saw Holmes plummeting to his death. However, a shot at the end of the episode shows Sherlock, alive and well, near his own grave. How did Sherlock Holmes fake his own death?

With filming for Sherlock now finished, and a vague start date of ‘early 2014’, the mystery of Sherlock’s death has become a talking point once again.

When I first finished watching the episode The Reichenbach Fall, I immediately went to YouTube to watch his death scene again. I love working out Sherlock mysteries and finding hidden clues, so I spent some time thinking about how he could have done it… This is what I came up with.

The writers like to hide hints throughout an episode, so I went back through the episode… At one point, Sherlock plays with a squash ball. This becomes important later on. He also goes to ask Molly for her help, which is very out of character for Sherlock, but does not specify what he needs.

When Sherlock stands on top of the building, he rings John to leave his ‘note’. He tells John to stay exactly where he is; this could be so certain events are later hidden from John’s view. After an incredibly emotional talk with his best friend, Sherlock leans over and falls down several stories. John rushes towards him, but gets knocked over by a man on a bike. He could be part of Sherlock’s homeless network, who are always willing to help him out. When John stands up, he is dazed, dizzy and disorientated, but forces himself to go over to Sherlock, who is lying on the floor at an awkward angle. By now, a crowd has gathered around Sherlock. This crowd could also be made up of members of the homeless network. John pushes his way through, kneels on the floor and takes Sherlock’s pulse. As he breaks down, it is obvious Sherlock is dead.

However, a squash ball under the armpit stops the blood flow in the arm, which can make it seem as though the pulse has stopped. This is where the squash ball I mentioned earlier comes in… Combine this with John being slightly dazed, and he could have mistakenly taken Sherlock to be dead.

This still doesn’t explain how Sherlock survived the fall off such a tall building.
A garbage lorry is shown driving away in the background when people are crowding round Sherlock. Sherlock could have landed in a conveniently placed lorry (driven by another member of the homeless network), then scrambled out and positioned himself on the floor with the time bought when John is knocked over.

And where does Molly come into all this?
Molly works in a lab, with many dead bodies… it would have been easy for her to provide a cadaver to be buried in Sherlock’s place, and to sign off a death certificate. She could have also provided blood packs, to explain the blood on Sherlock’s face and on the floor.

Another idea is that Molly provided a dead body, made up to look like Sherlock, which she then pushed out of a window while Sherlock got away in the lorry. This was my original idea; however, more thought makes me realise how unlikely this is.

I can’t wait until the next series of Sherlock… I want to know whether or not I’m right!!