View source for Digital Dr Who is outshone by a galaxy of monsters

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| publication = Belfast Telegraph
| file = 2010-11-08 Belfast Telegraph.jpg
| px = 750
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| date = 2010-11-08
| author = Michael Conaghan
| pages = 3
| language = English 
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| text = REVIEW DOCTOR WHO LIVE Odyssey Arena {{stars|4|4}}

THE continued success of the Dr Who franchise is generally a bright light in these murky times, but can you have too much of a good thing?

Now, following the success of the Doctor Who proms comes a new dimension in time and space, Dr Who Live.

Something of a misnomer really, because although Matt Smith is an active, if merely digital, presence throughout, the Odyssey arena on Saturday became a venue for the real stars of the show, the monsters.

Basically an episode strung over two halves of the show, with an archetypal cliffhanger immediately before the interval, the plot need not detain us overmuch.

A dastardly plan by the you-know-whos aims to destroy the Doctor by duping opportunist intergalactic showman Vorgensen, played with brio by Nigel Planer, to capture him in his 'minimiser.

Vorgensen runs a menagerie coincidentally containing the best known of the Doctors various enemies, from Oods to Cybermen.

So began the parade of the monsters, from the rhino-hided judoons, the sexy Vampires of Venice, providing that necessary Pan's People moment for the dads, and most frightening of all the Weeping Angels.

Thinking that such moments might be too dark for some of the youngsters I deferred to the expertise of a couple of young fans.

Ciaran McVamock (11) said the evil parade was "scary, but you know you're safe". While David Tbnilinson (8), who writes his own weekly Dr Who magazine and liked David Thrmant's Doctor best, admitted the Weeping Angels from Blink were his nemesis.

The action was punctuated by some excellent playing and singing, with a score by Murray Gold, and the band did well to avoid being consumed by the increasing pyrotechnics, as we moved towards the climactic battle between the Cybermen and the Daleks, topped by the sight of one flying, which was seen off by the combined might of the Doctor and the audience shouting Geronimo! Terrific fun. 

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