Doctor Who has never really been one to attract controversy as it's mostly been controversy free and while yes there have been some minor controversial moments in the shows past before now. There's really only been one maybe even two controversial moments that spring to mind well now that number has sadly gone up and that is something that does effect that i'm going to be talking about today and given the nature of the controversy it is something that's going to be have brought up in this review as well and so then join me as I review the episode that sees The Doctor take on his smallest enemy yet with the episode in question being called simply just "Fear Her" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when kids on a typical street start disappearing it's up to The Doctor and Rose to find out what's happening and stop whoever is taking these kids once and for all. 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 h0onesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that that bad but at the same time the plot of this episode really isn't all that good either as it just comes across as being the stereotypical Doctor Who plot only without any charm to it and while yes this episodes plot does have some really good and creepy ideas in it the plot as a whole really does come across as feeling like it somebodies first draft of a screenplay and not there final draft as there are alot of things from a plot perspective that could have been worked on some of which they actively discuss in the episode commentary track as well but when this episode does get something plot wise it really does get it really right with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is David Tennant as The Doctor , Billie Piper as Rose Tyler and Love Actually star Nina Sosanya as Trish. Also starring in this episode is Abisola Agbaje as Chloe Webber , EastEnders star Edna Doré as Maeve , Tim Faraday as Tom's Dad , Love Actually star Abdul Salis as Kel , Richard Nichols as A Driver , Erica Eirian as A Neighbour and Stephen Marzella as A Police Officer.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the 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. With all of this episodes actors turning in some really good performances which for David Tennant and Billie Piper Billie especially is really nothing new as she's been playing Rose Tyler for a really long time at this point in time and there she would therefor no what kind of performance would best suit her character in any given situation with the rest of this episodes actors also really turning in some really performances which really does go to show that the director for this episode Euros Lyn really does know hoe to get a really good performance out of his actors with the acting in this episode really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so good that all this episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance really will come out of them which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this is the legends and the greats that are really currently over at The Mill and Any Effects. Now then interms of what I personally thought /felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film 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 but at the same time this episodes CGI wasn't all that good either and while that can attributed to the fact that this episode had an even smaller budget then what Doctor Who usually has as the next two episodes were very effects heavy episodes and as such they needed to cut corners in this episodes in order to make room in the budget but at the same time given that this episode really doesn't that many effects in it and both of them don't look that good there should have been more of an effort into creating some really good effects even if it was done on a tiny effects budget as the effects teams wouldn't have any other effects in this episode to really take away from the bad effects and yet even tho we do get some decent looking effects when it comes to people watching the Olympics the pencil creature and the Isolus don't look as good as they really should have done.
There's no way that I could possibly talk about this episode without talking about it's recent controversy thanks to it's guest star Huw Edwards. As it's come to light that he was caught with images of children that number one weren't his kids which is bad enough but secondly are images that you don't want to be caught with and as a result of that is the fact that the BBC have pulled this episode off of BBC IPlayer thus making this episode the only episode in Doctor Who history to have an episode pulled off of BBC IPlayer and while them pulling the episode does indeed make sense as what he did was very wrong at the same time it has come out that they knew about it and as a result of that is the fact that them pulling the episode really does come across as them trying to save face in the eyes of the public now how much the Doctor Who production team knew when they were making the episode is hard to say as none of them have come out and said anything either way but given that they working on re-recording his lines with someone else does say that they perhaps didn't know what he's been up to but there is always a chance that they did know and like the BBC are trying to do now are just trying to save face in the eyes of the public.
On to much more lighter things while Doctor Who has always had it's fair share of cheesy moments in it. This episode does have a really cheesy moment in it as well as when the torch barer for the Olympic flame falls over they have The Doctor run up to him pick the flame up and light the Olympic Flame which on paper does sound like a really good ting as Doctor Who is a British icon and the Olympics were taking place in London both in the episode and in real life but at the same time it is something that really does come across as being a cheesy moment and it's one that could have been left out of the episode as while it does add to the plot of the episode as it explains why the Alien's spaceship is now able to leave the earth there could have been other less corny ways to have that happen and still keep the episodes Olympic theme front and centre and yet they way that they went with just came across as being really cheesy in all of the right ways just due to how iconic Doctor Who is but it could have been done alot better and done in a way that wasn't as cheesy as it was and yet they way that they went with does seem in keeping with the episodes alot more lighter tone as well.
In a rather bizarre twist the episode really doesn't have an out and out villain as while the closest thing to villain is Chole's deceased father. With him acting like the abuser that he was when he was alive with him trying and in most cases succeeding to torment Chole and her mother Trish but even then he really doesn't come into play as a villain with the vast majority of the episodes running time being spent with Chole and the by extension the Isolus being the episodes main villains with them getting alot of the episodes care and attention with the father only being given the spotlight in smaller scenes which makes him feel like a secondary villain when in reality he's the episodes main villain and yet the episode really doesn't treat him as such and yet the Isolus who despite having very noble end goals of just wanting to return to there own family is instead treated as the episodes main villain when there in fact the episodes secondary villain and as a result of that it really does mean that we get a pair of characters that despite them working in this episode would have worked much more better if they switched there own roles with the father becoming the main villain of the piece and Chole and the Isolus becoming the episodes secondary villains as that would allow the episode to still tackle it's child abuse subtext and yet still give out the message of hope , love and unity that is present all through out this episode as well.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly forty six minuets and three seconds. Which is pretty much the bogstandard running time for this show to have at this point in time and to this episodes credit this episode really does have the right amount of plot to really cover that large amount of time and while the episode does feel like that it's going through the motions alot of the time when the episode really does ramp up near the end it does get more exciting and when the episode does have some scares in it there some really good scares that remind you of just how creepy Doctor Who can be and yet at the exact same time this episode really could have done with being a bit longer as the episode has so many characters that really do need fleshing out and yet thanks to this episodes running time they can't be as fleshed out as they really could have been with the same thing also being true for both Trish and Chole as well as both of them do come across as being very dimensional characters when out of the episodes guest cast they are the ones that should have been given the character development that they really needed the most but I really will admit that this episode really does gave some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action 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 action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. As the action really was exciting to see with doing a good job of getting us the audience really excited to see the father get destroyed which while he does get destroyed in a rather underwhelming way it's still exciting seeing how we get to that point and the fact that it was something that was really well built up thanks to the jeopardy of not having The Doctor there to save the day means that it now forces Rose to think on her feet and it forces her to become the hero that we've only seen glimpses off throughout her run in the show which is something that does work really well for this episode as it shows that The Doctor does have a lot of faith in Rose even tho she might not have it in her self just yet and because of the fact that we get a really exciting action packed third act that works really well in the context of the episode but doesn't work really well on paper as it something that really does need to be seen in order for it work as well as it really does in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this is an episode that on paper should have been really good as it had all of the potential to be a really good episode of this series of Doctor Who and yet for one reason or another this episode just didn't live up to the potential that it had with the episode instead really just instead crumbling under all of it's own potential 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 really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 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 we ll as ladies and gentlemen I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . UK , the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what'd think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.