(701) World War Three

The NEXT TIME trailer at the end of the previous episode still bothers me because it basically tells people not to bother watching because you know that the Doctor is OK. The Doctor gets out of his predicament (which we knew he would because of the NEXT TIME trailer) before the titles play. I think that it’s a good way that he gets out of it because he saves himself and as a result saves Rose, Harriet Jones, Jackie and Mickey.

There is one scene between Green and General Asquith which is really strange because its not something that seems to belong in a Doctor Who story.  

Green: I need to be naked

General: Rejoice in it. Your body is magnificent!

The list of people rolling up to Downing Street is still amusing as there are some that make sense but Andrew Marr’s second appearance ends with him introducing Sylvia Dillane who is Chairman of the North Sea Boat Club. Russell T Davies sprinkles little jokes throughout the episode and the humour is well place which isn’t something that I would have expected to be writing about a Doctor Who episode.

The Doctor starts mentioning that he knows the name Harriet Jones. It’s not until the end that he reveals who she would go on to be. When I watched this back in 2005, I remember thinking that it would be good to have her back in the show against. The Doctor starts to appreciate Mickey. When he calls him Mickey the Idiot towards the end of the episode its almost done with affection. I think that the Ninth Doctor and Mickey have a rather frosty relationship even at its best but Mickey has a better relationship with the tenth Doctor.

The outside of 10 Downing Street does pass for the real thing until they do a long shot which shows that its not quite the real Downing Street which does slightly take me out of the story but at least they have tried to make it look like Downing Street instead of just filming it in just a studio.

Jackie has a go at the Doctor for thinking this is fun life for him and that he’s dragging her daughter into it and I like how later on he replies by saying that it’s not fun or glamorous. The Doctor has had a battering from Jackie in these two episodes but I think that by the end of the episode their relationship is ok, not perfect but better than it was at the beginning of the previous episode.

I forgot that the Doctor offers Mickey the chance to come on board the TARDIS. He turns the offer down but boards it in the next series. When the Doctor pretends he doesn’t want Mickey to come on board to spare Mickey’s blushes, Rose doesn’t put up much of a fight which I find surprising. It’s a scene that is the proper goodbye that Rose should have had in the first episode and its more memorable because of Christopher Eccleston and Noel Clarke who

The episode ends on a rather downbeat note with Rose walking out on her mother and boyfriend. Even the music is downbeat so its hard to feel anything positive when the credits start to roll. The first two parter of this new series isn’t the greatest. Even if I base it on its own merits instead of comparing it to other two parters it is still lacking something. There are things to like in these two episodes but it doesn’t quite have enough to be classed as an early classic. These two episodes as well as the opening episode have been directed by Keith Boak who hasn’t returned to the series since and on the basis of these two episodes its not hard to see why because they aren’t directed with particular pace or excitement. They are nuts and bolts episodes and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but it just doesn’t work in this two parter.

The next episode sees the return of the Daleks and whereas the previous NEXT TIME I didn’t like it, that isn’t the case for this trailer because it shows that the Daleks are back and in a different way to what we have seen in the past. Tomorrow cant come quick enough.