Let’s face it, Demons is, for all intents and purposes, ITV having a barely-disguised stab at making the British Buffy. The question is, of course, is this really necessary? They don’t call them vampires in Demons. They don’t call them demons either, which seems slightly odd. Just “freaks” or “half-lives”, graded by the level of threat they pose to humankind. Some look like monkey-gremlins, others like fox-faced hoodies. One regurgitates dollops of digested food in front of horrified waitresses and wears a silly hat....

But let’s be real here: the characters and the plot are great, but they are secondary to the world-building Scalzi manages here. He’s clearly thought through all the details of how a disease like Haden’s would change society, from new industries to bigotry and beyond. A touch I particularly enjoyed is how few places were prepared to deal with Agent Shane — so many subpar threeps, so much dust collecting on them — because let me tell you from first-hand experience, even when your disability isn’t a big deal to you, other people sure do act like it is....

Biggest problem first: I’m always thoroughly annoyed when vague mentions of ‘faith’ are used to cover up plot holes in any programme, and the Doctor channelling people’s belief through the Archangel network was one of the worst offenders. I always thought the point of Doctor Who was that ingenuity and fighting spirit would win the day (which, incidentally, was exactly what Martha Jones was doing up to the end). But no; apparently, it’s about blind faith and some rubbish about psychic powers....

The very welcome return of writer Rona Munro to Doctor Who – it’s being a long time since her inadvertent classic era finale, Survival – has brought with it a quieter episode of the show than I was expecting. It was only as the credits rolled at the end, too, that it really struck me it was probably the last standalone Peter Capaldi adventure we get where he doesn’t regenerate at the end, and it seems fitting therefore that it takes place in Scotland....

10.12 The Doctors Falls “You shouldn’t have hit me, Missy” Thank you for taking the time, in the midst of the internet exploding all around you, to come and read this review. This is being written ahead of the episode’s transmission, and were I putting money on things, I’d suggest the reappearance of Heather from The Pilot is where the battlelines are mainly being drawn right about now. For much of The Doctor Falls, it really looked as if Bill – one of the absolute triumphs of the series – was doomed....

In fact, the amount that was lavished on the at-times superb effects work in The Fires Of Pompeii is probably the reason why the BBC won’t be showing a full series next year. There wasn’t a wobbly set in sight. As an episode, it took some time to settle down, simply because so much seemed to be packed in. Aside from continuing to establish the relationship with Donna and the Doctor – and thus spend a little time explaining conventions such as the Tardis translating everything – there was the setting up of the Pompeii story, then how it was being manipulated, then a circuit board, lots of prophecies, then a great looking creature, then a water pistol, then everyone slowly turning to stone, then saving the day … it was exhausting stuff, and a healthy antidote to any accusation that Doctor Who lacks ambition....

I felt pretty much the same about The Doctor’s Daughter. You have to start, though, by giving full credit to the Who team for tackling the one question that’s never been satisfactorily addressed, namely the Doctor’s offspring. We had a brief snippet a few series’ back, when Tennant’s Doctor revealed that he had a child, once. And inside a few minutes of this episode, his arm had been stuck in a machine, and he had another one....

6.11 The God Complex I think there’s some interesting criticism that’s being aimed at Doctor Who at the moment, that I don’t agree with, but want to touch on anyway. And it’s this: that the show is getting a bit too emotional, and too concerned with the story of the assistants. The last few weeks, after all, haven’t been about Daleks, and Cybermen, and homicidal aliens. Rather, they’ve dug into the psyche, to differing degrees, of Amy, Rory and the Doctor....

6.2 Day Of The Moon Let’s work some theories. If that’s Amy’s daughter, as has been strongly hinted (the photo in the children’s home is the key example), then she’s a Time Lord. Does that make the baby the Doctor’s (it’s sounding a bit like a soap opera, granted, but bear with me)? Or, could it be a young River Song? After all, the Doctor and River are moving further and further away from each other....

1.1 Pilot Well, at times. Dominion kicks off with a hugely promising double-whammy – an animated sequence retelling the events of Legion through snazzy stylized stained-glass windows, followed by a tense opening scene which sees our lead character Alex (played incredibly straight by Christopher Egan) stumbling upon a rogue pack of evil angels and hurriedly trying to escape. This results in a pacey action sequence which combines our first glimpse of angels in flight with a speedy escape car, a big gate that won’t open and a trigger-happy gun turret into some well-executed, solid action....

Dragon Ball Super Episode 61 “Shall we start, Zamasu?” “Very well, Zamasu.” It’s important to not let yourself be controlled too much by your emotions. This is easier said than done when you’re fighting for the safety of the entire planet, but it’s fundamental to not get distracted. It seems like an impossible task to not follow the basic instincts to act human, but it’s a difficult part of the Z Fighters’ job that doesn’t typically get explored....

DuckTales Episode 10 DuckTales has been gone too long. I know it’s because the series has now switched from airing on Disney XD to Disney Channel proper but how could we be denied this amazing of a series for so long? The antics in the various rooms were all hilarious, especially with the sea monster, but like the best DuckTales episodes it dovetailed perfectly with a more emotionally striking climax. Dewey was afraid that his mom was a bad person....

Harboring hopes that Joan and Sherlock will one day fall into each other’s arms and produce brilliant, beautiful offspring? Maybe go find another show. Elementary is exceptionally good about presenting their characters realistically and honestly. They shy away from the trap of easy sentiment or manipulative choices (UNLIKE SOME OTHER SHOWS ABOUT THE SAME CHARACTERS WHICH I COULD MENTION COUGH COUGH MOFFAT COUGH COUGH). Elementary is smart enough to know that if they foist Sherlock into the arms of Joan (or vice versa) they lose what makes their show special: That nuanced friendship and partnership....

3.2 Arcadia The targets of the hate campaign appear to be owner Leo Richardson (Richard Dillane) and his dissatisfied wife, Annette (Genevieve O’Reilly). Possible culprits abound. Political activist Cuthbert Mukamba (Charles Babalola) is protesting against Richardson’s possible involvement in importing prohibited Rhodesian goods, giving him a plausible motive for transforming peaceful protest into terrorism. Store manager Ivor Maddox (Chris Larkin) has a difficult history with his employer. His grandfather was a co-owner of the firm, which was founded on staunch Quaker principles, until his pacifist beliefs conflicted with his partner’s decision to supply the army with provisions during WWI....

Beverly’s angrily packed her bags and, in her hasty dash to the airport, drives her Ford Mustang straight into Matt LeBlanc’s Jaguar. Leaving their cars to smoulder in the LA sun, the pair head to LeBlanc’s beachside pad, where they spend the rest of the show arguing and exchanging sultry glances. Sean, meanwhile, is left trying to salvage both his marriage and his floundering TV show. Having left 31 voicemail messages on Beverly’s mobile, he settles down for lunch with rodent-like executive Merc, a man with only a passing interest in television, and almost no interest at all in Sean’s misfiring sitcom....

One early scene in director Baltasar Kormakur’s survival thriller perfectly illustrates this point: a climber totters above an unfeasibly long drop into a deep trench of ice and snow. He’s standing on a rickety ladder most of us wouldn’t use to climb up into a loft. Just as the climber gets his footing, a nearby sheet of ice the size of a double decker bus shears off, leaving the ladder shuddering in its wake....

1.2 The Rooster King Unless, of course, the pregnant widow exists in an offbeat milieu in which quirky little homilies sit cheek-by-jowl with agents of almost satanic malevolence. You know, the kind of place in which a grieving son can sit on the stairs at his own mother’s wake and play silently with a toy rifle, as Gordo Nygaard did this week while his father and uncle discussed plans for rebuilding their lives....

When FlashForward first appeared, a great many people drew parallels with Lost, in that this was obviously going to be a convoluted story that might occasionally wander away from the central themes. I’m not going into the deep details of what happens in Course Correction, but needless to say, minor characters come back and the previously entirely discredited notion of ‘destiny’ is once again resurrected. My frustration with all this is that they’ve already told us things that make this not a real possibility, not least that flashes forwards contradict on occasion, and there is no one perfect destiny for everyone....

1.21 The Night In Question Building on the previous episode’s revelation, Henry tracks down the hospital that Abigail worked in after she left, and finds that she disappeared from there and the property that she’d rented to live in. There was something slightly odd about this pursuit, because given that she was sixty five in 1985, the chance that she’d still be alive now seems at best unlikely. So it’s more a matter of finding out how she died, depressingly....

1.5 The Pugilist Break But its biggest sin was the lack of any significant character development given the amount of screen time that both Henry and Jo were given here. We already know that Henry is a sucker for anyone being oppressed or downtrodden, and we also know that Detective Martinez is a rule-breaker, so playing those cards again seemed pointless. Only right at the end of the story, when Henry convinces her to come to dinner with him and Abe, did any true character work momentarily surface....