7. The Shakri Get Cocky
Story: "The Power of 3" (2012) - Matt Smith
Usage Rating: Letts - Tie up the conflict in under 60 seconds
Nyssa Scale: 1 - Totally essential, as otherwise the episode'd overrun. And interesting thing happened as I threw this list together - It defied my expectation. I really thought that the Davies era, rife with moments of Tennant mugging while sonic screwdrivering for sight gags' sake, would dominate the New Who content. But really, it's in Smith's era that things have gotten a bit excessive. Yeah, Tennant used it in ways that many of us gleefully would. (The sabotage of the transport's entertainment in "Midnight" comes to mind.) But Smith often uses it in ways that are confounding, or worse, make its excess in Classic Who look subtle and justified by comparison. "The Power of Three" is once such instance. In a move that likely has 80's Who producer John Nathan Turner spinning in his grave like some kind of mad ballerina, the Sonic Screwdriver ties things up in under a minute of screen time. Which is good, because the episode had only about 5 minutes left to do that anyway. NO! It's not good at all. The Shakri actually are rendered in a haunting way, an interdimensional force that Smith hints at having a legendary status amonsgst Time Lords. The portrayal given by Steven Berkoff as the sole member of the race we glimpse is excellent, and Smith even tantalizingly explains the character's sudden disappearance in a charmingly cryptic manner - "He was never here in the first place". It's good they weren't, because they might've gone through a bit more trouble to make their plot and threat not so easily resolved. Smith LITERALLY waves the Sonic Screwdriver around, and BOOM! Ship explodes, attack on earth reversed, and Amy and Rory home in time for Ron Weasley's Dad to tell them what to do with their life. This is a recent problem with Moffat-era episodes - Never has there been a better time for these to go back to a 25 minute a week, 4-part serial format. This story tries to cram Amy and Rory's domestic conundrum with the temptation of adventuring with the Doctor amidst a well-played "slow invasion" plot. Also, UNIT, the canonization of "Downtime", and the Brigadier's daughter. 45 minutes was never going to be enough for all of this, and unfortunately it's the alien threat that suffers. Which is doubly unfortunate as this is Doctor Who, people watch this show for the aliens and sci-fi elements, and many of us are wondering why Amy and Rory just weren't cut loose with style & appropriate grace in "The God Complex". That the Sonic Screwdriver is basically used in EXACTLY the way that everyone always complained it was is just icing on a somewhat sour cake. Are the Shakri coming back? Because really, I think Rory's dad had a greater struggle trying to change a light bulb two episodes earlier. Not like the Sonic couldn't have fixed that in the same amount of time, too.