There are alot of Doctor Who episodes out there that are at best very underwhelming or just straight up don't deliver on what they promised. Well sadly this episode is one of the underwhelming episodes which is a shame because when this episode first came out I was a big fan of this episode but now years later it's just not that good of an episode and so then join me as I review that serves as the third and final introductory episode for Jenna-Louise Coleman with the episode in question being called simply just "The Bells Of Saint John" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when the WiFi goes down in the home of a family who's kids she's looking after Clara Oswald finds herself in a life or death adventure with a mad man in a box. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty the first thing that's wrong with the episode as the episodes plot just felt very average with there not really being any high stakes to the story with the plot instead feeling like a stereotypical Doctor Who adventure but with none of the heart and soul put into it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Matt Smith as The Doctor , Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara Oswald and Celia Imrie as Miss Kizlet. Also starring in this episode is Robert Whitlock as Mahler , Dan Li as Alexei , Manpreet Bachu as Nabile , Sean Knopp as Paul , James Greene as The Abbott , Geff Francis as George Maitland , Eve De Leon Allen as Angie Maitland , Kassius Carey Johnson as Artie Maitland and Richard E. Grant as The Great Intelligence.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about thew actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in, all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Which really isn't al that surprising as the cast of this episode are a bunch of really good actors and actresses but while they are a bunch of really talented people even they can't elevate this episodes script and because of that the acting in this episode isn't as good as it perhaps could or even should have been.
Doing the CGI for this episodes is the legends and greats that are currently over at The Mill and Real SFX. Now then i terms f what I personally thought /felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad altho saying that there are some really CGI effects in this episode that haven't aged all that well but those represent the minority and don't represent the overall majority of the CGI effects found in this episode.
I mentioned at the start of this review that this is the third introductory episode for Jenna-Louise Coleman. As in the other two episodes she played different versions of Clara from different points in time and while she was great in all of the other installments and while she is great in this one as well I think that her Clara Oswin Oswald character is the one that had the most potential to be a truly great companion from the word go as that character was feisty and smart and wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty when it mattered the most where as while I do like Clara I feel she's just not that well written especially in this first episode.
This episode does a fairly good job of setting up The Doctor and Clara's relationship moving forward with The Doctor taking on the role of a protective parental figure with Clara. This was something that I really did like as it's something that I don't think has been seen in modern Doctor Who or in Doctor Who in general with the scene of him just talking to her after she awakens being a cute scene that is bound to make anybody smile ad plus seeing The Doctor act protective over does make sense for his character as at this point he's just lost Amy and Rory and so of course he's not going to want to loose someone else again let alone someone who he's seen die twice in two different time periods which does make their relationship all the more sweet and really endearing.
You could even make the argument that this episode is more of a tragedy due to the fact that episodes supposed villain Miss Kizlet is revealed to have only been around six years old when The Great Intelligence started talking to her. This meaning that she had her entire childhood not robbed but stolen from her with her first words back as that six year old girl just asking for her parents who are now at best most likely no longer with us with The Great Intelligence itself proving to be the true villain of the episode as it stole people and robbed them of their memories some of them form decades at a time and alot of whom would have had loved ones who wouldn't really have had contact with them since The Great Intelligence stole them to be used in it's evil scheme.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes running time even was I do know that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly forty five minuets. Which is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for modern Doctor Who but at the same time I really do feel that this episode really didn't have to be that long at all as the episode itself doesn't have alot their interms of either plot or story to cover that large amount of running time with alot of the episode really just feeling like that it's stuck on repeat mode until we get to the episodes third act of the episode but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I ave to actually talk about the actual actin that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally tought / felt that the actual actin that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As this episode is very action packed with there also being some really good comedy moments in this episodes action but at the same time having The Doctor ride a bike up the side of a building is always going to be really stupid no matter what the explanation they use to explain it away and really was a real down point in the episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while younger me liked this episode when it was first broadcast older me now really doesn't like it all that much as it's just trying to hard to be scary instead of actually being scary in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 5.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , Amazon . Co . UK , IMP Awards . Co and Google Images. With my personally preferred website that I personally preferred to use to get the images that I personally used in this very review being the wonderful Google Images as since all of the images that are all currently up and of course featured / presented to us on the great Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.