In time honoured New Who tradition, the Doctor travels to Wales for this two parter by regular Torchwood writer Chris Chibnall, this time assisting the small mining community of Cwmtaff against an assault from the ground itself. Near the start, we see the ominous signs of this being a time paradox story, but fortunately the Doctor is having none of that and quickly leads Amy away towards paradox-free waters, the rest of the episode instead revolving around vanishing miners, sinister forcefields and graves that eat people.
As one might expect from Chibnall, this is a fairly dark seeming episode, with quite a bleak flavour to it. Thankfully, this is balanced out somewhat by some superb characterisation - both of our regular protagonists and of the residents of Cwmtaff - and some beautiful dialogue, but nevertheless this episode as a whole felt rather dark to me, particularly one scene which was claustrophobia-inducing to the point where I actually felt slightly uncomfortable viewing it, and another rather grim scene involving a dissection room.
The soundtrack to this episode is rather enjoyably reminiscent of old-school sci-fi, I think. Speaking of old-school, long time fans may recognise the antagonists of this episode...
The Hungry Earth
In time honoured New Who tradition, the Doctor travels to Wales for this two parter by regular Torchwood writer Chris Chibnall, this time assisting the small mining community of Cwmtaff against an assault from the ground itself. Near the start, we see the ominous signs of this being a time paradox story, but fortunately the Doctor is having none of that and quickly leads Amy away towards paradox-free waters, the rest of the episode instead revolving around vanishing miners, sinister forcefields and graves that eat people.
As one might expect from Chibnall, this is a fairly dark seeming episode, with quite a bleak flavour to it. Thankfully, this is balanced out somewhat by some superb characterisation - both of our regular protagonists and of the residents of Cwmtaff - and some beautiful dialogue, but nevertheless this episode as a whole felt rather dark to me, particularly one scene which was claustrophobia-inducing to the point where I actually felt slightly uncomfortable viewing it, and another rather grim scene involving a dissection room.
The soundtrack to this episode is rather enjoyably reminiscent of old-school sci-fi, I think. Speaking of old-school, long time fans may recognise the antagonists of this episode...