On a Clara day you can see forever

I can pretty much guarantee nowadays that if I don't watch a new Doctor Who episode "live" as it goes out, by the time I catch up Twitter will have informed me that it was both the best episode EVAR and the worst. Maybe we should just accept that the old "you can't please all the people all the time" adage applies with a vengeance, even to national treasures like Doctor Who. Right then, we're back with the second half of the 50th anniversary series, except the actual anniversary episode won't air until November, and I'm not entirely sure splitting it up into a fractured mess has really worked and etc. This year is basically going to be remembered like the year of "specials" that ended David Tennant's run, but with the specials all clumped together weirdly, isn't it? Anyway the "mini-movie" idea for the series is still going, complete with movie posters, and the idea behind "The Bells of Saint John" was apparently that this would be the Bond movie of the series.

"The Bells of Saint John" by Steven Moffat, directed by Colm McCarthy. Spoilers under the cut.

Actually I don't have a huge amount to say about the episode itself; it was fun, neither the best ever nor the worst ever, and you can't go wrong with chucking Celia Imrie(cake) in there as a baddie. Plus for all the "every episode is a standalone" thing there's clearly going to be a running arc, what with The Great Intelligence already reappearing, and still taking the form of Richard E Grant.

The Doctor moping about as a 13th-century monk seems like the sort of thing he'd do, yes. I like the title, with its reference to the St John's Ambulance sticker on the front of the TARDIS; a bit indulgent maybe, but it is part of an anniversary series and it's the kind of little thing it's nice to acknowledge now and again. And I do like a title that gives nothing away about the actual story, that's also a bit of a James Bond trait - other than that I'd say the connection to the Bond movies was more in the way the episode was shot than anything else. Yeah, there was a lot of action but... it's Doctor Who, that's not a first.

Jenna-Louise Coleman is still impressing me; the rumblings about another flirtatious Doctor/companion relationship were worrying, but just like in her first appearance when she was a Dalek, Coleman makes it work and seem fresh.

I did like the gag about spotting the TARDIS in Earl's Court.

Conspiracy-wise, I'm mainly going to be wondering about "the woman in the shop" who gave Clara a number to call the TARDIS. A number that presumably even the Doctor doesn't know, since that isn't a real phone. Hopefully this won't get ignored and we'll get a timey-wimey explanation in the finale, or the anniversary special. It's most likely River Song, since she always seems to know stuff about the TARDIS even the Doctor doesn't, but I hope not, mainly because it's always River Song. Former companion? I'd be hoping for Martha, what with her working for UNIT, if she still does, but then nobody on the show seems to remember Martha existed so if not River it'll probably be Rose, since we know Billie Piper is filming again.

The trailer for next week is a particularly uninspiring one, I must say.