"Shut up, Brian."
IN THIS ONE... The Doctor teaches Brian Cox a few things before a lecture.
REVIEW: Science popularizer Brian Cox had already appeared in The Power of Three the previous year and his easy manner and natural humor make him a perfect guest-star in the Eleventh Doctor's series of "hanging out with celebrities" minisodes. Cox walks into what he thinks is the make-up room before his lecture special, but it's the TARDIS, and he shares some fun banter with the Time Lord over various topics he'll then treat on the show proper. By themselves, they're amusing enough, and I love how it (of course) turns into a Doctorly intervention for Cox to get it right because a child in the audience will be inspired and change the world. Very sweet, and we expect nothing less from Matt Smith's Doctor (and one of the show's writers, Steve Thompson).
Where they take their full meaning is in the entire special. Cox is great at what he does, not skimping on the hard science (it gets heady in places), but managing the very Doctor Who trick of weaving in and out of topics, yet bringing it all together again cohesively, like one of the great season finales (or that year's Day of the Doctor). The title refers to both astronomy and the collection of television stars in the audience, some of whom are invited to the stage to help with entertaining demonstrations (I was surprised to see John Oliver there, but he sadly doesn't help with a demo). Cox discusses time travel, of course, with a detour into the possibility of alien life, and does so in ways that amuse, instruct and yes, thankfully for that little girl out there somewhere, inspire. And he does it all in a one-man show, delivering it without the benefit of TV magic, except for those TARDIS inserts. A great lecturer, and one of our best and most literate speakers on science.
THEORIES: I leave those to Brian Cox.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium/Medium-High - The TARDIS bits are perfectly entertaining bits of fluff, but the science lecture is totally worth it.
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