Supergirl Season 2 'Ace Reporter' Review

Episode eighteen focuses primarily on Kara reestablishing her career as a journalist. Her unemployment brings some great moments for Kara as she tries on several attempts to make her own baked goods. 

The friendship between Kara and Lena is one of the most charming as their genuine fondness of one another is compelling but it feels like it won't always be this way. As Lena reunites with an old partner, Jack Spheer, who has created a form of nanobots that can repair and heal wounds, Kara becomes more involved as she discovers the human trials were conducted on Jack, turning him into a swarm of nanobots. 









 


There's strong chemistry between Lena and Jack which makes his demise more emotionally engaging. Once Kara shows Lena the footage of Jack testing the nanobots on himself, this leads her to believe he was the one who killed the human trial patient and the fired company worker.

I felt the revelation of the real culprit, Jack's co-parter in the company, Beth, wasn't justified enough to make sense. She had hardly featured in the episode at all and then suddenly appeared. This caused the conclusion to make less of an impact but as Lena overrode the nanobots, killing Jack in the process to save Supergirl, this does allow for potential conflict between Kara and Lena.

 

 As Kara comforts Lena's loss, Kara promises that she will always protect her, which is when Lena learns that Kara is Supergirl. Seeing as Lena had to sacrifice Jack to save Supergirl, that provides a strong motivation for her to become revengeful towards her.

Ace Reporter focus on Kara's career and her friendship with Lena feels pivotal to her development as a reporter, opening up further potential threats for Supergirl which may come from the most unlikely of people. The script offers some charming and funny moments and the nanobots prove to be one of the strongest villains the show has produced.












 

Doctor Who 'Smile' Review

In this week's episode, The Doctor and Bill venture into the future, arriving in a city where there is no-one to be found apart from a group of emoji robots. As The Doctor grows increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of the colonists who were meant to make the city their new home, Bill continues to ask questions about The Doctor, helping to cement the pair's friendship.

Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce explores how humanity uses technology and how that evolves and develops. It's a fascinating subject and used to great effect. There are similarities to how artificial intelligence's works; in order to achieve their goal, they can create new actions in which to achieve them, developing a self-evolving process. 





The script is sharp, intelligent, witty and flows wonderfully. Bill continues to ask the questions many of us have always wanted to ask The Doctor. Why the police box? Shouldn't we call a helpline? 

Indeed, these questions provide much of the engaging conversations between The Doctor and Bill. Their friendship is unique, charming, eccentric and warm. Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie perform with creativity, intelligence, imagination and spontaneity. 



'Smile' is a disturbing yet engrossing story that leaves The Doctor faced with an impossible situation. The consequences feel raw and emotional. Technology can never truly be trusted because the bottom line is: they are not human.  

The plot was harrowing and gave us an exciting new twist with regards to why the microbots were killing the colonists. Grief as a virus gave new insights into the perspective of technology and how it perceived the situation. 

 

There were some smashing moments of comedy especially when The Doctor and Bill had to keep smiling as they were escaping from the emoji robots. Bill's enthusiasm and joy were infectious; making me love her even more. 

Episode 2 has taken a global communications phenomenon and explored its form producing give a dark, funny, smart and gripping story that questions the future of technology and our relationship with it. 

Watch out for the elephant!

Doctor Who 'The Pilot' Review

After sixteen months since series nine, Doctor Who finally returned with The Pilot, its title being one that would let new audience members know that this is where they could start their journey as a viewer/fan.

Even though I've been an obsessed fan since I was nine-years-old, I still felt like I was watching the show for the first time because even though I know about the mythology and what came before, the show has completely rejuvenated itself, much like the Doctor himself. 

  

As Bill encountered the Doctor for the first time, there was a clear difference to their relationship. One that factors into the Doctor wanting to guide and teach Bill about the universe and show her her own potential. 

The set up of Bill's life was shot beautifully; the cutting between the Doctor explaining the TARDIS anagram interceding with Bill locking eyes with a girl she likes was really cool. Writer Steven Moffat has done a fantastic job creating Bill. She has a youthful cheekiness and sincerity to her which makes her feel real and relatable. 

The plot was very imaginative and explored the idea of reflections and something being on the other side of it. However, I felt the motivation of the alien threat wasn't explained which made their role feel less threatening than they could have been.

But having said that, there were some creepy moments, when the creature inhabiting Bill's love interest Heather's body, the constant dripping made me wonder if they were connected to The Flood, last seen in The Waters of Mars. 

The scene where Bill returned home and realised it wasn't her foster mum that was having a shower was atmospheric and effectively creepy and tense. Bill's reaction really added to the surreal moment when she sees an eye looking back at her from the plug hole.  

Whatever life forms they may be, it's possible we'll see them again in the future. Another aspect of the plot which left me unsure was The Doctor travelling to Australia, then to a planet in the far future and into the midst of a Dalek War. I presumed he was testing if the creature would follow him across time as well as space. I think it's a positive thing that the audience can be confused yet engaged and interested enough to analysis the story further. 

The script was fast, witty, emotional and explored new ways of introducing Bill as the companion. Bill and Heather's separation was tragic yet beautiful in the sense that the alien who killed Heather had latched onto the emotional connection Heather felt towards Bill, almost like it was something new that it wanted to hold onto. 

Seeing Bill take her first step into the TARDIS was moving and funny as she compared the console room to a 'posh kitchen.' The glee and wonder in her eyes were clear, allowing fans new and old to rejoice in the beginning of the show's magic all over again. 

The Pilot succeeded in introducing Bill to the Doctor's world and gave a clear sense of who she is and how she's going to test the Doctor through their travels together. The alien threat didn't feel like much of a threat but did give the episode some intense and scary moments. The raw emotional beats were engrossing and the music certainly uplifted the atmosphere and wonder of the episode.

Rating: 9/10