Doctor Who; House Of The Dragon; Bloodlands

“Outgoing showrunner Chris Chibnall had a tough brief. He not only had to finish Whittaker’s Tardis tenure on a high, but propel the show into its new era and mark the BBC’s centenary to boot. Chibnall said he wanted to tie together past, present and future. Well, he certainly achieved that. This feature-length special, titled The Power of the Doctor, was perhaps the best episode of his patchy five-year stint as supremo.”
Michael Hogan, Telegraph

“Sacha Dhawan, as the Doctor’s arch-enemy, the Master, enjoyed the best scenes. At the Tsar’s Winter Palace in St Petersburg, he was ‘Russia’s famous love machine’, Ra-Ra-Rasputin. Then he stole the Doctor’s identity and swaggered around in a long, stripey scarf and a cricket jumper embroidered with question marks. He had the sharpest one-liner too, as he was dragged off to a prison cell: ‘I have allergies – I’m human-intolerant!’”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It was symbolic of this era of Doctor Who: the most noble of intentions, the most likeable of actors, but stories and scripts that often felt incomplete in some way, punctuated by odd beats and jarring character decisions. Here’s hoping that the return of David Tennant, along with the return of showrunner Russell T Davies and new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa, can lead the show into a brighter future.”
Stephen Kelly, The i

“This episode is bombastic, and so stuffed with Easter eggs and nods to the past that I doubt I even caught half of them, but it rolls through this meaty story – or more accurately, several stories that eventually converge – with Whittaker’s trademark energy and a just-right lightness of touch.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian 

“Such was the backlash against the dreadful final season of Game Of Thrones, there were grounds for worrying that the viewing public had gone cold turkey on fire-breathing lizards. Plus, it was up against Amazon’s $1billion Middle-earth epic Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. In this struggle between dragons and hobbits, it was far from clear which would claim the spoils. But with its series finale, House of the Dragon has emphatically seized the crown – even if none of its characters have quite managed to do so.”
Ed Power, Telegraph

“If Bloodlands had a sponsor it would surely be Ex-Lax. In last night’s finale, the permanent expression of James Nesbitt’s DCI Tom Brannick was of a man with week-long constipation who has exhausted all remedies. Even getting shot in the leg didn’t seem to relieve it. “Take the gold,” he grunted, a cop more bent than a snake with colic.”
Carol Midgley, The Times