My Thoughts on Double Rainboom and The Bells of Saint John · 6:18am Mar 31st, 2013
March 30, 2013 sure had a lot going on. It was certainly a day that I've been looking forward to for a while now. Firstly, it was the day that Series 7: Part 2 of Doctor Who was starting up and secondly, it was the release date of Zachary Rich's fanmade MLP episode Double Rainboom. So I've decided to go ahead and give my opinions of both Double Rainboom and the newest Doctor Who episode The Bells of Saint John. I must warn you that I will discuss spoilers so I recommend that you check out Double Rainboom and The Bells of Saint John before reading any further. You can find the link to Double Rainboom below:
First, I'll discuss The Bells of Saint John as that was what I saw first. I've definitely been excited for the return of Doctor Who for a long while now. Each trailer got me more and more hyped for the return of the series. So the series officially returned tonight with The Bells of Saint John, and I can honestly say that I was not disappointed. I was happy to finally meet the Clara Oswald that would be the Doctor's main companion. The chemistry between Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman is just as entertaining here as it was in Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen. They work off each other extremely well and Clara Oswald is quickly becoming one of my favorite Doctor Who companions alongside Donna Noble and Martha Jones (I like Rose and Amy as well). This was definitely a great way for the series to pick up again.
The Spoonheads, while not an entirely threatening enemy, certainly had a few creepy moments here and there. The moment when Clara came across the Spoonhead, who was posing as a girl from a book, in the house was certainly a creepy moment. Celia Imrie gave a great performance as the controlling Miss Kislet and her ultimate fate at the end was somewhat sad and creepy as well as a throwback to the fate of Dr. Simeon in The Snowmen. The twist of having the Great Intelligence with Dr. Simeon's face being the true villain of the episode was great and I'm looking forward to seeing how this plot element spans out throughout the rest of the season. There were also several moments and shoutouts that deserve mentioning. The Doctor and Clara riding the motorcycle, the Doctor flying a plane, the bow tie being contained in a special box, and the Doctor, or should I say "Spoonhead Doctor", riding up the side of the Shard on a motorbike were all fantastically fun scenes. I also love the reference to Amy with the book that Clara sees being written by a certain "Amelia Williams". There's also a few odd tid bits hidden throughout the episode that might be explored later like: who was the woman that gave Clara the number to the Doctor's TARDIS? Hopefully this will be explored later in the season.
My only problems with this episode were that, like The Snowmen, the threat wasn't entirely as large scale as expected (but the Wi-Fi attack certainly had a bigger impact than the snowmen) and that the villains (even Miss Kislet) were a bit underwhelming. But, still, it was a great episode and I'm certainly looking forward to the future episodes.
Now, I'll discuss what I thought of Double Rainboom. This was a project that I was certainly interested in when I first heard about it. What made me so curious was that there were hardly any details of the plot of the episode. I was very curious as to what was to transpire in the episode and the trailers certainly added to the hype. So, after watching The Bells of Saint John, I rushed to my computer to watch Double Rainboom. And, after seeing it, I can honestly say that while it wasn't what I was expecting it was still a lot of fun to watch. The animation, while not as "show-accurate" as was predicted, was pretty good aside from a couple, minor slip ups here and there. The voice acting was also really good, especially for the Powerpuff Girls. The crossover with the Powerpuff Girls was unexpected but really fun, even though it wasn't entirely what I imagined a crossover like that to play out as. It had a lot of funny moments, great shout outs to the fandom, and several shout outs to other fandoms.
However, I do have a few problems with it. Firstly, the pacing is a bit all over the place. There are moments where it moves a bit slow and other moments where it moves a bit fast. While I liked most of the references and shout outs, it felt like some of them were a bit forced: such as Doctor Whooves having to make an appearance alongside the already-seen Derpy (who had a pretty funny cameo already); Vinyl, Lyra, and Bon-Bon all being crammed into the same shot alongside Big Mac and the CMC; the somewhat forced albeit funny cameo of Snowflake; and the Troll face in the smoke cloud formed from Twilight's potion. Also, the crossover with the Powerpuff Girls I think could have played out a bit better. While it definitely had some funny moments and the start of the crossover was pretty good with both the Powerpuff Girls and Rainbow Dash facing off against the monster separately, a majority of the crossover was pretty much a mix between Benny Hill and the "Pinkie Pie chasing after Rainbow Dash" scene from Party of One. Also, the part with Pinkie Pie breaking through the fabric of space and time and rescuing Rainbow Dash bordered on deus ex machina territory. In the end, it left an enjoyable but somewhat disappointing taste in my mouth (I mean the crossover, not the episode as a whole). I felt it would have been better if the Powerpuff Girls brought Rainbow Dash to the Professor to help get her back to her universe. There'd be some funny gags and jokes here and there and it would turn out that the Professor was working on a potion just like Twilight. Rainbow Dash would take the potion, return to her dimension, and the lesson would be learned. While the Pinkie Pie scenario does make sense, I felt that it wrapped things up a bit too easily. I'm not saying that my scenario's any better, I was just saying what scenario I would have preferred to see. But it was fun to see the references to the other shows: such as other Cartoon Network characters floating around when Rainbow Dash ends up in the Powerpuff Universe and Hub characters floating around when Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie return to their own universe. Also, the ending with Bloo ending up in Ponyville was a pretty funny way to end the episode (Twilight's, Rainbow Dash's, and Spike's expressions were priceless).
Overall, Double Rainboom was an enjoyable and fun fanmade episode. Sure, it had a few problems and probably was a bit too overhyped for its own good; but it still had funny moments, great shout outs to the Brony fandom as well as other shows, good animation, great voice acting, and a pretty entertaining crossover between MLP and Powerpuff Girls. I certainly hope that Zachary Rich gets a passing grade for this project of his.
So those were my opinions of The Bells of Saint John and Double Rainboom. Does anybody agree with me? Disagree with me? I'm interested to hear what all of you other Whoovian Bronies or ordinary Bronies have to say.
I watched that last night, too.
Honestly, I expected it to be better. I enjoyed the trailer more than the episode. It made the show look so epic. I just it was something to do while I wait for season 4 though....
I loved the Bells of Saint Johns, but Double Rainboom left me lacking.
961091 Doctor Song! Tee hee.
Sorry. 
It's interesting you note Donna Noble alongside Clara Oswald as your favorite companions. To me, Clara is a lot like Donna in that I think they both are companions who can keep up with their respective Doctors. But as for the episode as a whole, I'll say this. I'm afraid to use Wi-Fi now. I'm still using it, but it makes me nervous. I think it was a pretty good start for the season. I look forward to unlocking the mystery of Clara Oswald.
As for Double Rainboom, I agree with everything you liked about it. My only problem was that it was advertised as the first fan made episode of My Little Pony and it turns out to be a crossover with The Powerpuff Girls. Buy hey, I liked The Powerpuff Girls growing up anyway. So I found that whole aspect incredibly amusing. I, however, did not feel that Pinkie Pie coming to the rescue by breaking the fourth wall as inappropriate.
Who says Deus ex machinas are a bad thing anyway? 
However, when it comes to fan animations, nothing could possibly top Snowdrop! I don't know if you've seen it.
Those are my thoughts. I enjoy hearing your opinion on these things. Keep up the good work.
961947
I guess deus ex machinas aren't always bad but I think Zachary could have refrained from doing something like that in the episode. Don't get me wrong. I think it makes perfect sense that the potion would allow Pinkie Pie of all ponies to gain the ability to transcend through the fabric of space and time but I still felt that it was a little bit too easy of a way for the conflict to wrap itself up. But that's just my opinion. Oh, and thanks for showing my Snowdrop! I hadn't heard of it until I saw your comment! I loved it! I might have to talk about it in a future blog...
961947
I meant to type "thanks for showing me Snowdrop" instead of "thanks for showing my Snowdrop." Stupid typos.