(746) Silence in the Libraray

Today’s episode is a notable one because it’s the 37^th episode for David Tennant and he now ties with Sylvester McCoy. He is still some distance away from his father-in-law who is on 69 episodes. This is also notable for being the story which introduces Alex Kingston as River Song into the Doctor Who universe. Little did any of us know in 2008 just how much of an influence that this character would have. This story was written by Steven Moffat and just days before this transmitted on BBC1, it was announced that Moffat would replace RTD as Head Writer on the show in 2010.

This story is highly regarded by most Doctor Who fans and when I watched it in 2008, I failed to see why it was so highly regarded. I liked it but I didn’t love it. I had the same attitude to Human Nature and the Family of Blood and look how things change in that regard.

A library that is a planet is such a wonderful idea. It is just called The Library. I think that the library set is rather good and its nice that its used a lot. The whole planet is visually beautiful and it’s a wonderful world that has been created and this helps the enjoyment of the story.

There are aspects of this story that are typically Moffat. The idea that Shadows can kill is something that is wonderfully dark and yet not too terrifying for kids. Something that kills with darkness is a simple yet cheap way of creating drama. It’s a bit like the weeping angels. The threat of the week (or fortnight) is the Vashta Nerada who are a carnivorous creature living in the shadow. There are a couple of instances where shadows seem to cross over but the beauty of TV is that you can pretty much choose to ignore or at bend the rules.

This is the first time that the Doctor has met River Song but for River there have been many adventures. There is a nice bit where the mystery of River Song starts and the Doctor wants the answers but whenever the Doctor asks any questions he gets the response of SPOILERS. The thing about Alex Kingston’s performance is that she gets perform without having the weight of past knowledge on her shoulders. From now on she will be performing knowing about previous adventures she has been in and the rather complicated timeline will take its toll. Now she is free to play the character as if it’s a one off.

Miss Evangalista is treated as the idiot of the group and so she is the first to meet her demise. It’s good that everyone feels bad that they weren’t nicer to her. The idea that she can carry on talking for a short period of time even when she’s a skeleton.

The revelation that Donna has become one of the info statues is quite a good way to end the episode. This has been a good episode and I have found myself liking it more than I remember. I don’t know whether this will still be the case come the end of the next episode but at the moment I have every reason to believe that I will be like everyone and think that this story is just as good as Human Nature/Family of Blood.

(745) The Unicorn and the Wasp

Now after the brief distraction of Martha has been dealt with, it feels like the show can get back to being the Doctor Donna Show. The title of this episode is one of the most fun and wacky titles that the show has come up with for quite sometime. This story sees Fenella Woogar appear as Agatha Christie and this story takes place on the day that she disappeared. Like most Agatah Christie books, this is a who-dunnit. Normally on a Agatha Christie drama that appears on ITV, it takes them two hours for this to unravel and yet Doctor Who manages to do a good job in 45 minutes.

For me this episode is memorable for the appearance of Henry Gordon Jago. There seems to be a nod to that character when Hugh Curbishly is recalling where he was and at one point there are some dancers on a stage which seems deliberate. If it weren’t for him then this episode wouldn’t be as exciting.

There are some good jokes which Gareth Roberts has done well sewing them into the episode. His last story was The Shakespeare Code and I think that he is having more fun with this story and it shows as he seems to thrive trying to mix Doctor Who and murder mysteries together. I think that most writers might have struggled so its credit to Roberts that he made it work. Graeme Harper directs this story well and in some instances the episode looks lovely.

The Wasp turns out to be the vicar. I had forgotten who it was so it was a nice surprise. The thing is that it isn’t normal for there to be such a long scene as the big reveal scene was in new who. It was like the show has slowed to mobility scooter speed. There is a running gag of Doctor asking the Doctor if a person did it after some big revelation has come out about them. That was quite funny.

This is a story that is ok but it’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I think that on another day I might be more favourable about this episode but today its not an episode that I think is in the top three of this series.

(744) The Doctor's Daughter

So todays episode is one which features David Tennant and his future wife and daughter of the fifth incarnation of the Doctor and his father in law Georgia Moffett. This follows on from the previous episode but isn’t part of a three parter. This is the second story from Stephen Greenhorn who wrote the rather interesting Lazarus Experiment from the previous series so there was always the possibility that he might get away with it again. Sadly within a few minutes it seems this isn’t going to be the case.

Within three minutes Martha is taken by the Hath. Martha is poorly served in this episode as she is stuck with the Hath and cries when one drowns in some quicksand. It seems like Martha was bought along in this episode for someone to interact with the Hath. The problem with this is that it’s just so in your face about it. Her final scene isn’t quite as emotional as it was at the end of Last of the Timelords.

The monster of the week are the Hath. The Hath don’t speak, they don’t even have any translation device which makes their involvement somewhat difficult. I can’t figure whether this is a good thing or not. On the one hand its quite different to not have an alien race speaking English yet on the other hand it slows the interaction between Martha and the Hath down.

I think that General Cobb was a good villain but one of the problems with the story is he doesn’t get the chance to be as good a villain as he could be. I think that Nigel Terry manages to do a good enough job to at least seem like the most interesting character. It would be wrong of me to not mention Mrs David Tennant. In 2008 they weren’t a couple and so its only now that it weird to watch them and think that on screen they might be father and daughter but in real life they are husband and wife. Taking that out of the situation I thought that Moffett did a good job. Apparently, it was Steven Moffat’s idea to bring Jenny back to life. I think that in hindsight this was a mistake cause she hasn’t been mentioned once since this episode and so as good as it looked to have her on her own adventures, in terms of Doctor Who narrative its not a clever idea.

It’s a slightly disappointing episode because it seems like to many things have been crammed into 45 minutes. I also think that it was a mistake to bring Martha along in this episode because it devalues her previous exit.

(743) The Poison Sky

Today’s episode is the 34^th for David Tennant as Doctor and that ties him with Colin Baker. Tennant is now just three episodes away from matching Sylvester McCoy. I got the most recent edition of Doctor Who Magazine and on the cover it has the line about how Earth survived 92 invasions which is an incredible stat. A couple of things have changed in my mind since watching the previous episode. Firstly there is the introduction of Martha. I mentioned that Martha’s introduction seemed to be solely so that she could be cloned. I have to admit that it is quite fun having an evil Martha in the story. When Martha meets her cloned self it is quite a nice moment and

Another thing that has changed since watching The Sontaran Stratagem. Rattigan doesn’t seem quite so annoying in this episode. I think it’s because the inevitability of his demise that makes him seem more normal than he was in the previous episode. He is abandoned by his followers at the academy and after his hissy fit he is belittled a bit before redeeming himself and killing himself and blowing up the Sontaran ship.

The Sontarans plan to turn earth into great big breading ground is quite a good one. I think that it might have been nicer if the plan have been made clearer and revealed earlier in this two parter. The idea is the sort of idea that would have worked quite well as a series finale.

There is a blink and you’ll miss it appearance of Rose. As the series approaches the half way mark her involvement is going to be more noticeable. In fact I think it’s the first time since Partners in Crime that Rose has been on our screens.

Helen Raynor’s previous story was the Daleks two parter in the previous series which had its moments but I think that this is a stronger two parter. I thought that Christopher Ryan was a good Sontaran and he was a good leader. I know this is a strange thing to say but I thought that the lighting gave the Sontarans a different look which I quite liked. I think that Robert Holmes would have liked this story because it uses the Sontarans in a way that compliments his characters.

What is a surprise (still) is the rather cliffhanger style ending to the episode. Martha has become a companion again although this time not quite as willing as he was before. I think that the Sontarans have been bought back and used in a good way. I have appreciated this story much more than when I watched it in 2008. The design of the Sontarans has been one of the successes of the story but it’s a story that has managed to bring in a lot of elements and make it all work. It was quite a shopping list that Helen Raynor had to deal with and this episode continues the good trend that the series is going on.

Tomorrows episode is going to be another interesting one.

(742) The Sontaran Stratagem

The Sontarans are the first of two classic monsters to return in this series. This is the first appearance of the Sontarans since The Two Doctors which was remarkable 107 episodes ago or another way to look at it 8,463 days ago. This episode sees UNIT make a return to the show and also Martha returns after an absence of five episodes.

The humanising that Donna has been putting the Doctor through has been good so far but in this episode it gets rather annoying. It happens when she asks the Doctor if that is what he does and turns his companions into soldiers.  There is a funny moment where the Doctor thinks that Donna is leaving and gives a lovely speech before realising that Donna is just visiting her family. The best thing about Donna visiting her family is that it means Bernard Cribbins get to be in an episode.

There’s a nice joke about the Doctor working for UNIT in the 1970’s and then questions whether it was the 80’s. This is because the date of UNIT stories is always something of a mystery because it was said that they took place about five years ahead of when they were transmitted but its never made clear on screen.

The pool where a faceless body is growing is quite grim and when it jumps out at the UNIT soldiers is a great little moment. Doctor Who Confidential highlighted the fact that the pool is the same prop that featured in The Fires of Pompeii.

The Sontarans costume started really good in The Time Warrior was really good and over the years it has got worse and this is the best ever. The Sontarans weren’t allowed to take part in the Time War and its quite funny to think that they must have been the only race in history to moan about not taking part in a war. Also we see more Sontarans in this episode than we have ever seen in all the stories combined. The little chant that they give at the end of the episode is superb because it just goes with the way the Sontarans are. Stahl the Undefeated is played by Christopher Ryan who played Kiv in The Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp and to be honest the voices sound quite similar. I didn’t think about it at the time but watching it a day at a time means that its more noticeable. In fact its only been three months since that story. Dan Starkey makes his first appearance as a Sontaran and little did anyone know that he would still be playing a Sontaran. He is rather good and these two are the only two that don’t always wear their helmet.

Luke Rattigan (Ryan Sampson) is a young genius but the problem really is that he is quite annoying. It’s quite funny when the Doctor is trying to outsmart Rattigan. It’s clear that he isn’t in control and it’s a little bit clichéd.

There is a nice moment between Martha and Donna where Martha pretty much tries to scare Donna off. This clearly doesn’t work as Donna is prepared to carry on travelling with the Doctor. There is a question that needs to be asked as to why Martha is in the story. It seems too soon since she left to bring her back and its seems that the only reason is to get her in the situation where she is cloned. It’s a shame really but

The final shot is of the Doctor standing in a smoke screen and that ends what was a rather good episode. It’s another episode which has shown a gradual improvement after the surprisingly disappointing start to the series. The Sontarans’ return is better than I thought and it will be interesting to see whether things continue on an upward trend or not.

(741) Planet of the Ood

After impressing in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit two years before, the Ood are back and this time they are more in the story. This is Donna’s first trip to an alien planet and the scene where she and the Doctor are in the TARDIS is set up just right because when Donna leaves she comes across snow. It takes less than 90 seconds for the Ood to start misbehaving.

This episode is one that has a morality slant to it. It’s a question of slavery. The treatment that they have received is something that is horrible. When it’s revealed that their brains are cut off and replaced with translator. The grimness continues when you think about how high the body count is. Ood are being shot dead and the humans are falling just as quickly.

Tim McInnerny is very good in this although I do still think of him as Percy from Blackadder 2. He is the boss of the Ood Operations that are treating the Ood appallingly and over the course of the episode he has been drinking what he thinks is hair tonic but is in fact turning him into an Ood. Before he becomes an Ood, he starts off by being a totally unlikeable person and then when things go wrong he wants to commit genocide. When he does change into an Ood the effect is really horrific and I remember thinking when I saw this that the show would get into trouble for doing this.

One of the things that I really like about this episode is the Ood singing and the reaction of Donna when she can hear them. Catherine Tate continues to impress me and although she’s not quite as good as Martha, she is completely different from the Donna that we saw in the Christmas Special she debuted in. Again Donna is trying to humanise the Doctor and make him realise that his actions have consequences. There is a moment where she decides that she might want to go home and this must have made some people throw their fists in the air but thankfully its not the end of Doctor Donna and she decides she wants to stay.

Graeme Harper does a good job in directing this episode and its rather nice looking. It’s not his best but its still got a lot of good shots and manages to make some drama out of scenes which wouldn’t scream out to me as action set pieces.

This was the strongest episode of the series so far. I know that might be damning with faint praise but it’s the first time this series that I have truly felt that the whole thing has worked well. There are things wrong with the episode but this is a good episode and there are some subtle things that lead to the rest of the season.

(740) The Fires of Pompeii

I said that todays episode would be interesting and that is what it proved to be.

This episode sees Peter Capaldi do a Colin Baker and appear in Doctor Who as a different character before he becomes the Doctor. At this time, Capaldi was appearing as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It at the time and here plays Caecilius. Ironically he buys the TARDIS thinking its Modern Art. A funny moment comes when Capaldi and Tennant are talking. It’s like when Peter Davison and Colin Baker are face to face in Arc of Infinity. Karen Gillan does a Peter Purves as she appears as Soothsayer. To be quite honest if it weren’t Karen Gillan then I doubt that I would have really noticed her because all Sibylline Sisterhood are pretty much the same really. Tracey Childs also appears in this episode, she has played Elizabeth Klein in the Big Finish audios on and off since 2001. Phil Davis is an actor that I really like cause he’s always capable of delivery a solid performance in whatever he does. He chewing the scenery from the very beginning. Some people are capable of acting like they were from the past but on this occasion, Davis doesn’t quite pull it off.

Something else of interest (to me anyway) is that this story features location footage at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome where the BBC TV series Rome was filmed. It’s some of the finest location filming that the show has seen and it almost overshadows the episode. One of the positive things about this episode is that there is more than a fleeting glimpse of these sets which don’t look like a corridor in a studio set in London.

Like in previous series, the Doctor starts the series taking his companion to somewhere in the past and then in the next episode.

I like how there is a bit of conflict between the Doctor and Donna about warning the people of Rome about what happens when Mount Vesuvius erupts. It’s Donna’s turn to learn the lesson about not changing the course of history. Donna’s attempt to try and humanise the Doctor and it’s a nice twist at the end where they have decide whether to sacrifice the world or Rome. Catherine Tate’s performance in this episode is rather good and really shines in this episode where morality is at the heart of the story.

The Doctor is told that she is coming and Donna is told that she has something on her back. Both of these refer to future episode but I didn’t remember that this is where these references started and its only in hindsight that they carry more importance than they seem.The monster is the Pyrovile who are rock creatures who have lost their planet. The design is rather good although I would like to have seen more of it during this episode because it was such a good idea.  

This was a perfectly decent episode even when you take out of the picture what Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan become. It’s a rare story where its what you don’t see on screen that makes this story enjoyable. After being slightly disappointed with the previous episode, its good to report that things have improved quite a bit and I am looking forward to tomorrows episode because it features Percy Darling from Blackadder.

(739) Partners in Crime

Today is the start of Tennant’s final series and it’s the return of Donna Noble. It is also the 30^th series of Doctor Who. One of the inevitable but annoying things about new Who is that they started from series one with Eccleston so today’s episode starts the fourth series whereas to people like me it’s the 30^th. When this episode aired on April 5, 2008 it was Tennant’s 832 day as the Doctor and overtakes Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy in the longest Doctor list. At the moment he is just 127 days behind Patrick Troughton and 157 days behind Colin Baker.

There is a slight change to the theme tune where it goes a bit more rock and I like it. Just thought you should know that.

When it was announced that Catherine Tate would be returning to the show there were a lot of people not wild about the idea. I knew that the Donna Noble that would appear in this series wouldn’t be the one that appeared in The Runaway Bride because no one would put up with that for thirteen weeks. It would be a toned down version of Donna but one that would utilise the comedy aspect of Catherine Tate.

Donna’s dad was supposed to appear in this series like he did in The Runaway Bride but sadly passed away during filming and so was respectfully replaced by Bernard Cribbins and RTD cleverly implies that Wilfred Mott who we saw in Voyage of the Damned is actually Donna’s Grandfather. Bernard Cribbins is the best thing about this series. If Captain Jack can get his own series then why can’t Wilfred Mott. From the moment he appears on screen, I find myself feeling happier, he is a positive on screen presence. A great moment comes when he sees the TARDIS in the sky and sees that Donna is with the Doctor. His reaction is fantastic and is worth watching again and again.

This series is one that is more light hearted than the previous one and its quite evident from the very beginning with the music that is used and the fact that for a large part of the episode the Doctor and Donna miss each other even though they are in the same building and sometimes the same room. In fact it’s around 20 minutes before they see each other and even then the Doctor is outside a window and Donna is looking through a door window. When they spot each other it’s a mix of excitement and bemusement. It’s quite funny and is made better when they look and realise that Foster is watching them both.

The fat that comes from people is clearly designed with merchandise in mind. They are cute and cuddly and make squeaking noises when talking. The villain of the week is Ms Foster who is played by former Corrie star Sarah Lancashire and it’s a good performance but it’s not the greatest. She is a nanny for the Adipose family and that is all she is but at the end of the episode she is about to board a ship that looks like it has come from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Don’t get me wrong, it looks visually impressive but it’s hard not to make the comparison.

There’s a great moment when the Doctor is talking in the TARDIS and then stops realising he is on his own and just stands there looking quite lonely and it’s a fact about the character that he needs someone to travel with to just interact with not just save.

There is a start of talk about missing planets and bees. This is very subtle start to the story arc for the series but the main talking point from the episode is the return of Rose. Her first appearance since Doomsday although its fair to say she has never really left cause her presence was felt throughout the previous series. It was a good moment to be fair because Rose’s face is hidden when Donna is talking to her and then Rose disappears into the distance. This has been an ok episode, its not been the best opening episode because I think the light hearted tone of the episode is something that doesn’t quite work that well. There are things to like but it is one of the weakest Doctor Who episodes of the new era.

Watching the NEXT TIME trailer I realised that two familiar faces and names appears and so tomorrows episode is going to be interesting.

(738) Voyage of the Damned

Its fair to say that during the latter stages of the classic era, the show was resorting to stunt casting. Getting people who didn’t really have a place in the show but was bought in purely for their star name. Since embarking on the new series, I think that the casting of famous names has been largely good and has worked in the benefit of the show. Sadly this good form has come to a sudden stop. This episode features the appearance of Kylie Minogue who granted started off her TV career in Neighbours but has hardly become a house hold name because of her acting. According to IMDB her most recognisable credits include Streetfighter (1994), Moulin Rouge (2001) and The Vicar of Dibley (1994).

This is the third Christmas Special and is also the longest at 1hr 11 minutes. It is also the most watched episode of new who with 13.3 million viewers. This story sees a space liner called the Titanic which like its namesake, suffers a disaster. I don’t know whether it was a good idea but if they hadn’t have called the ship Titanic, then people would probably have still made the similarity anywhere.

Geoffrey Palmer makes his third and final appearance in Doctor Who after appearing in Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970) and The Mutants (1972). His involvement is sadly to short but he is basically the one causes the problems in this episode. Clive Swift is another former Classic Who star to return. Swift previously appeared in Revelation of the Daleks but plays a much more likeable character in this episode. Sadly he gave an interview in DWM where he was less than pleasant. Bernard Cribbins makes his first appearance in TV Who in a role that was suppose to be a one off but due to the way of things that will be mentioned in tomorrows review, he ends up being more involved in the show that anyone watching on Christmas Day 2007 would have realised. Back to Kylie Minogue and I wouldn’t say that her acting is terrible but its not hard to see why she has had a more successful career in music. I think that casting her as someone who starts off as a maid was a bit of a mistake. It’s like Dwayne Johnson in the new San Andreas movie being a helicopter pilot. It’s asking us to suspend our disbelief just a bit too much.

There are some good things that work in this episode. Firstly the Hosts are very good and like the weeping angels, have a great way about them. The way they can cause death is with their hands and with their halos. The other good thing about this episode is David Tennant. This is his 29^th episode and he is definelty at ease with the role and does have some good one liners throughout. If there is one reason to watch this again then it would be for Tennant’s performance. The bit where he is lifted into the air by the hosts is quite a good moment.

The big set piece occurs at the end (obviously) when the Doctor is trying to prevent the Titanic from crashing into Buckingham Palace. This leads to a rather amusing bit where the Queen makes another appearance and thanks the Doctor. It’s not a terribly convincing performance.

Despite being the longest and most watched of the Christmas Specials, it is actually the weakest of the specials. The central problem is that the plot is somewhat dull. Bearing in mind what is happening on screen, the story just doesn’t grab me in the way that The Runaway Bride did. It too long as well with the story working just as well if it had been 60 minutes long. It is by far the weakest of the Christmas Specials and is in y ratings the second weakest story of the new era. It is a disappointing episode but I would be lying if I were to say that it was unwatchable. That honour belongs to Love and Monsters. Now we the Catherine Tate series and Tennant’s final series.

On a final note, this episode was dedicated to Verity Lambert who had passed away about a month before. Verity was the mother of Doctor Who and whilst this might not be the best episode to dedicate to her, I think that she would have been proud of this episode because it tried to achieve something and that is what I think she would have approved of.

(737) Last of the Timelords

I am surprised at how quickly this twenty-ninth series has gone. Whereas the previous series seemed to drag at times, this series has been a huge improvement.

The Master’s little dance bit isn’t something that we would have seen Anthony Ainley do or Roger Delgado doing that. I think that it’s something that make the Master seem more made crazier. I hadn’t realised how good John Simm is in this episode. When he’s on screen I am enjoying the episode and when he isn’t on screen then I find myself wishing he was on screen. The thing about this Master is that his plan is like his plans of old. It’s so convoluted that its almost boring but unlike his plans of old, it doesn’t get stopped at the last minute by the Master.

The encounter that the Doctor the Master have on Earth is a short, snappy but very impressive bit and to be honest all the scenes between the two of them are very good.

I thought that the Master being shot was a bit of a mistake. It would have been good if he had managed to escape like he always did. The Master refusing to regenerate (didn’t know it was an option) seems to indicate a very firm end to his character although there is always the potential for a get out clause when a mysterious hand picks up the Master’s ring.

The make up to make Tennant look old works quite well at first. It’s not quite as good as the make up he had in The Family of Blood buts it’s still good. However when the Doctor is made even older then the effect looks very poor. He looks like he has come from one of the Harry Potter films.

One of the episodes successes is that it manages to show the destruction of the world by people talking about how countries have fallen.

One of the biggest clunkers in Doctor Who history is when Captain Jack seems to insist that he is the Face of Boe. It just doesn’t work and is a little bit silly. Even back in 2007 I thought that it was a bit of a misstep.

Martha does a lot of driving the narrative in this episode. She is the one that has been on the journey around the world and has played an interesting game of double bluff because we were made to believe that she has spent the last year looking for bits of a gun. Her speech about the Doctor is a nice one because it basically tells people that the Doctor is the hero, not her. It’s weird to think that for most of the episode, the Doctor and Martha don’t meet. It’s not until the end that they are in the same scene together. It’s frustrating that Freema Agyeman leaves at the end of this episode because she has been a breath of fresh air after the rather staleness of Billie Piper.

The goodbye scene between the Doctor and Martha was really well done. It was an exit that made sense and worked and is one of the stronger exits for a companion.

Like Doomsday, this episode has a cliffhanger for the Christmas Special and this time it’s more epic. The Titanic somehow manages to crash into the TARDIS leading to a WHAT from Tennant like he did in Doomsday. This has been a better episode than I thought. In my mind I had previously thought there was far more sentimental nonsense but actually it was all in proportion. The story with the Master ended at the right time and the departures of both Captain Jack and Martha were given the right amount of time.

Last of the Timelords is a good end to the season which has been consistently strong. I think that the next series (and Christmas special) is where the Tennant era goes downhill a bit. But maybe things might be different.

(736) The Sound of Drums

The sound of Drums is the penultimate episode of the series. The pre-title scene is very good because it basically sets everything up in just a couple of minutes. The Master has called himself Harold Saxon and has become Prime Minister. His first proper scene with his cabinet is very god and shows a wonderful example of how borderline mad he is. That scene is memorable because he gases everyone and the camera moves in towards him as he is tapping the glass four times. 

The first conversation between the Doctor and the Master is the best thing of the episode. It is what people had been waiting for and it came at just he right time. An ex platoon is given about what happened to the Master and how he got out of the predicament that he was in during the TV Movie. He hid from the Daleks during the Time War which essentially shows him to be a coward or it could be seen as a typical fight for survival. John Simm is very good and manages to play the Master.

Lucy Saxon is an interesting addition to the story because it's clear that the Master doesn't really care about her but is just using her. I thought her best scene was when was talking to the reporter. The reporter has worked out that Harold isn't the man he claims to be and seems to be about to spill the beans before going back to normal and revealing that Saxon is lurking in the room.

Sharon Osbourne, Busted and Ann Widicombe all make cameo appearances in what has become a regular tradition. I can't say that this bothered me because it was quick and was relevant to the story (sort of).

The Toclafane are a new creation. They are a interesting creation although they don't serve a purpose outside of his story. It would be wrong of me not to mention the scene with the Teletubbies. It is a lovely nod to the 1972 story The Sea Devils where the Master is watching the Clangers. It is a scene that I have been looking forward to since I saw the Clangers scene because it was clearly written as a nod to that story. 

Martha is quite different in this episode because her family are in danger. She isn't the fun and nice person that she has been for the previous eleven episodes but becomes rather nasty to the Doctor although it's not easy to blame her. It could be argued that her parents and sister being locked up by the Master is Francine’s fault. What was the point of getting Reggie Yates in the episode? He makes one very brief appearance and then is never seen or heard from again. I think that his casting has been one of the biggest mistakes since the show returned in 2005.

The scene where the Doctor talks about Gallifrey and its the first time that we see Gallifrey in the new series and some backstory about the Master. Basically the Master went mad at the age of 8. It does a nice job of explaining what happens to kids on Gallifrey.

The U.S. President appears in this episode (not the real one I should add!!!). This is the first time since Abraham Lincoln in The Chase that a U.S President has featured in Doctor Who. There is a nice bit of tension between Winters and Saxon. There are nice digs about the invasion of Iraq where it was clear that the U.S. we're calling the shots.

The Master has used the Doctor’s TARDIS as a paradox machine. Seeing the TARDIS in that red glow is fantastic and it's good that it's being used in this way because normally it's just a prop to get the regulars from place A to Z.

The addition of the song when the Paradox machine starts is quite a mixed thing cause at the time I liked it cause it seemed new but now it doesn't seem to work as well. From the moment that the President is killed the episode really starts to ramp up towards the cliffhanger. Things look bleak for the regulars cause the Doctor is an old man (more about the make up tomorrow) and Martha is fleeing into the distance. I thought that this ending was really good.  It was a very good episode and continues the good trend and I am really looking forward to the final episode of the series.

(735) Utopia

Utopia is the first in what is technically a three parter and it sees the return of the Master. It also sees the return of Captain Jack Harkness. He returns by literally running and screaming at the TARDIS. I think that Jack is the one that sends the TARDIS to the year 100 Trillion. I commented that 42 was the last story to be directed by Graeme Harper but I was wrong.

Derek Jacobi starts as Professor Yana but becomes the Master. It's hard to believe that he would appear in Doctor Who although having seen him in a rather unfunny ITV sitcom it's not as surprising as it once was. Yana is trying to help people find Utopia. It's good to see Yana knowing that he is the Master although he doesn't know it. Not only does he not know it he doesn't even know that he’s a time lord. There is a gradual build up to when Yana becomes the Master and the fob watch from Human Nature becomes more relevant. The message from the Face of Boe in Gridlock becomes important as well.

I will confess that I didn't put the you are not alone line and Yana together until it was pointed out to me. It's quite clever how things that have featured in this series have led to this episode. The story arc for this series has been better than the previous series.

I thought that David Tennant was ok in this episode. There were a few moments where the Doctor was a bit too arrogant for my liking. I know an argument could be made that he is always arrogant but it's more noticeable in this episode.

There are two groups. There are the humans and then there are the future kind. The humans are a rather sorry group of people who are at the end of the universe and seem to be not far from the end. It's somewhat of a shame that the Doctor is essentially the one that sends them to their doom without realising it. 

The future kind are rather good as they seem to be rather stupid but aggressive. It's not quite clear to me why they are determined to stop the humans from leaving which is perhaps the only aspect of the story that doesn't quite work for me.

It's quite good how sometime has passed and there has been a whole load of Torchwood stuff since then. The flirting gag that was used quite often during his original time on the show is back and used a few times. There is a bit of an issue between the Doctor and Jack. The Doctor doesn't really like he idea that Jack is basically a fixed point in time. That is why the Doctor left and didn't try to find Jack.

The episode really shifts a gear when Yana opens the watch. This is where I think that Graeme Harper’s direction. The incidental music is really good and it's very distinctive. The drumming sound is very good and the fast tempo is a nice change to most of the new series episodes.

John Simm’s brief appearance as the Master is rather fun and energetic. Like Jacobi, it's surprising that John Simm agreed to take on such an iconic role. Simm is a very good actor and it feels like some credibility has been bought to the role.

I thought that this was an episode of two halves because the pre-master story was interesting but not the meat of the story. The actual meat of the story is what I found more interesting and this is where the finale really gets going. The performances were good but I think that the best is yet to come.

(734) Blink

Blink is the story that is Doctor-lite however unlike Love and Monsters which is the weakest New series story and one of the weakest stories ever, this story is memorable because it launches arguably the greatest monster to have come out of the new series. Who knew that something so simple could have such an effect. Due to the Doctor and Martha being out of the picture for most of this story, the responsibility falls to Sally Sparrow. With this being a Steven Moffat story, it should come as no surprise that most of the action in this story takes place inside an abandoned house.

The weeping angels are a superb creation. They are simple yet very effective. We never see them move or show any signs of life. The actresses dressed up as the Angels do a superb job because I never see them move, not even an inch which isn't an easy thing to do. They can't look at each other and every time you blink they move. It's fun trying to not blink. It's never explained whether just closing one eye at a time would keep them at bay. I love the idea when Sally and  Larry are trying to get into the TARDIS the Angels make the lights flicker.

Carey Mulligan is another actor that has gone onto great things. I think that she is one of those people who would have made a very good companion. She becomes quite the detective. I found the interaction between Sally and Billy Shipton to be quite good but it goes downhill and their scene where billy is older is really grim. I thought that Finlay Robertson does a good job as Larry who is effectively Sally’s sidekick. It's a sort of loveable dope type character but it's one that works in the context of this story.

The thing that the Angels do is to touch people and they go back in time. As the Doctor they make you live to death and take the energy from the life they take. The first victim of this is Kathy who ends up in the past and writes a letter to be delivered at the same time when she is hiding.  What is quite good is that there is an explanation as to what happened to her and she isn't just forgotten which was always a possibility. Shipton is the second person to disappear but he’s still alive and is able to talk to Sally about his experiences.

What is quite funny is that the Doctor hides messages as DVD Easter eggs and in 2007 that wasn't a major thing but in 2015 with stuff like Netflix and on demand, DVDs  seem a little bit old fashioned. It's like the 2007 version of VHS’s. The Doctor speaks to Sally through the DVD and this is a rather clever way. This is another rather well written story from the future show runner. This was at a time when people still like Steven Moffat and this is arguably his best story that he has written for the show.

It's good that the Doctor and Sally finally get a scene face to face towards the end of the episode. It's a great brief scene but the episode ends with the idea that all statues could be weeping angels. I will admit that I did play with the idea that this could be a real thing. It shows how well the episode worked. It is regarded as one of the best new series episode and it's not hard to see why. Yesterday I said how it was the first story since the TV movie to get in the 8’s and this is the second episode in a row to get in the 8’s. At the moment, Blink is the ninth highest rated episode ever and the fourth greatest story ever. It’s just overtaken The Family of Blood and Human Nature and is the best story of the new series.

The story benefits from superb acting and the directing is also impressive. Hettie MacDonald take the simple approach which does go overboard to try and inject some unnecessary action scenes. It's not over the top and it suits the writing of Steven Moffat. Now with that story out of the way it's time to get ready for the final story which is in effect a three parter and sees the return of Captain Jack. Oh well the quietness couldn't last for ever.

(733) The Family of Blood

Nice little bit of trivia to start off with that this episode was transmitted in my 24^th birthday. I now feel old but at least this episode makes up for it. I have started to read the novel and at the moment it’s very different even though I am only a dozen or so pages into it. Bernice Summerfield is in 1913 and no sign yet of the Doctor but back to today’s episode. Rather interestingly they use the pre-title scene to replay what happened in the previous episode. Normally there is something that happens before the title

I like how Martha is the one calling the shots at the beginning of the episode. Quite literally calling the shots. She continues being the one that is watching over the Doctor.

The family are quite a good group of villains considering that they using human forms that aren’t related to each other. The little girl is quite creepy and very similar to the girl in Remembrance of the Daleks. When she goads the Doctor/John Smith into one of the schoolboys into shooting her I was surprised at how good the actress was. It’s revealed that The Doctor ran away cause he was being kind cause he knew that he would have to finish them off for good. They wanted to live forever and the Doctor made sure that they did in rather ingenious ways. I like the encounter between Jeremy/Brother of mine and the Headteacher. The headteacher is rather gung-ho and Baines tries to show him how he’s a fool. The shootout between the schoolboys and the scarecrow with a hymn being played is a very strong moment and his death at the hands of the little girl is perhaps inevitable.

The sight of several dozen scarecrows behind Baines is another cracking shot and Charles Palmer deserves a lot of praise. The weeping angels are coming up in the next episode but its fair to say that the scarecrows are another great creation and it would be cool to see them in something else.

The discussion about Martha’s ability to be a Doctor between Martha and Joan is interesting cause its another example of the attitudes towards women more specifically ethnic women in 1913 England.

I actually feel sorry for the Doctor cause as John Smith he doesn’t want to change. He wants his current life. There is a lovely final scene between John Smith and Joan. There’s a lovely flash forward to life as a married couple, kids and his death. He looks old for the first time this series. When they meet with the Doctor as himself it’s very different and both Tennant and Hynes deserve credit for the scenes they have together. In fact everyone worked really well over these two episodes and there wasn’t a weak link the entire cast.

The scene where the Doctor encounters the family and starts off by pretending that he’s human is a great scene and a great moment from the Doctor. It’s a moment where as a viewer I was relieved that the Doctor was back and doing what he does best.

Tim fights in the First World War and its a moment that is superb and not something that would have been done in classic Who and shows how the show as developed since 2005. That moment is followed by a Remembrance Sunday service which I thought was another classic moment and it shows that even though this is a piece of drama that war isn’t all fake guns, explosions and tomato ketchup.

I was worried that todays episode would disappoint me, that it would live up to how good the opening episode was but this was one of the best episode of the series and in fact ratings wise it’s the ebst episode since its 2005 reboot. Human Nature is third with The Parting of the Ways at number two. As a two parter it’s the best two parter beating the Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways season finale. It’s the first time since The TV Movie that a story has rated in the 8’s and the first time since Remembrance of the Daleks that a series story has rated in the 8’s. I haven’t until now appreciated just how good this story actually is. It is definitely the best Tennant story and tomorrows episode is another of the Doctor-lite episodes but one that is way better than Love and Monsters.

(732) Human Nature

Human Nature and Family of Blood is held in high regard by most Doctor Who fans and it’s not hard to see why. This is the first Doctor Who story to be adapted from a novel. Dalek had elements from Robert Shearman’s Big Finish play Jubilee but this was the first novel to be used. In that book it’s the seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield and Paul Cornell has had to obviously make some changes. I will be honest that I haven’t read the book but I am going to start today and see what the differences are so I wont be doing much comparing but this is a story that could have only been done from this series onwards because I don’t think that viewers would have gone with this story in 2005.

There’s a great dramatic opening with the Doctor and Martha before it suddenly changes gear and the Doctor has gone posh and Martha has turned into a maid. The Doctor and Martha are being chased by the Family of Blood who are after the Doctor’s life force to stop them from dying.

The Doctor’s life force in in a watch and the big thing is making sure that it isn’t opened yet because the family will find him. This is put at risk when Latimer finds it and opens it briefly.

There’s an interesting bit of racism in this episode which isn’t something that has been addressed in Doctor Who before and its quite a brave thing to do and a sign of how things have perhaps changed.

Jessica Hynes plays the love interest in this two parter and its clear that its doomed to fail in one way or another. She plays Siobhan Sharpe in the very funny W1A and she is very funny but has the ability to do some serious acting.

This story sees the appearance of Thomas Brodie-Sangster who has gone on to have a big career appearing in stuff like Game of Thrones and most recently Wolf Hall. He plays Tim Latimer who has ESP and he sort of hovers around the story for most of the episode and only really becomes relevant to the story towards the end of the episode.

Harry Lloyd plays Jeremy Baines and is one of those that becomes the human form of the family and he is totally horrible and is what most people would imagine private school snobs are like in 2007 not just 1913. When is he taken over by the family he seems to become superb and his performance makes him seem rather dangerous and that adds to the whole two parter.

Journal of Impossible Things is a book that John Smith has created and it has scribbles and loads of drawings in it. One of the most interesting moments comes when there is a page with several previous incarnations

I’m not one for pointing out continuity errors (partly because I never notice them) but at the 25:18 mark whilst the schoolboys are shooting at mock up targets. There is clearly a lorry passing by in the distance. It’s very small because its far away but it’s not something that would have been there in 1913.

I commented how David Tennant gave one of his strongest performances for sometime in 42 but I have to say that its rather bland compared to what he does in this episode. Tennnat gets an opportunity to play the Doctor in a different way and do something different in the lead role and he does wonderfully with it. Ok so he isn’t really playing the Doctor but watching him in todays episode I see the Doctor not John Smith and that is how good Tennant was. Even Freema Agyemen manages to keep up with Tennant. Martha has to ensure that things are going as smoothly as possible until the Family have died but it was inevitable that things were going to go wrong quickly because the story would have been boring otherwise.

There is a nice nod to the show’s creation where John Smith says his father is Sydney (after Sydney Newman) and his mother is called Verity (after Verity Lambert). I thought that this was a lovely nod and one that was designed to please the long time fans and as one of those I have to say that it was lovely.

The episode does move in a slightly slow pace but I didn’t mind it. I thought that there was enough goodwill on screen that I just let it pass by and when it did start to pick then it leads to a rather good cliffhanger. The Family of Blood know that the Doctor is John Smith and are going to kill Martha and Joan if he doesn’t change back but John Smith doesn’t know how to and he has to choose between which of them is killed. This was a great opening episode and the worry now is that the concluding part wont live up to the hype.

Interestingly Phil Collinson is promoted to Executive Producer and Susie Liggat has become producer making her only the second woman to be a producer in Doctor Who. Not quite sure what the reason was for this because he goes back to being producer in Blink but it’s interesting that it was 42 years between female producers.

(731) 42

Two years ago today, I started An Unearthly Child. A year ago I was watching the first episode of Death to the Daleks. I started watching an episode a day and I didn’t think that I would last that long but here I am on the second anniversary and watching an episode that I had never rated that highly. The initial idea of the episode is rather good. The Doctor and Martha have 42 minutes before the ship they land on crashes into the sun. The story is effectively told in real time and there is a clock that appears ever so often to show us how long there is left. The thing is that it doesn’t seem to really stick to it and kind of gives up to it towards the end just as the tension is starting to get racked up.

I think that one of the reasons why I haven’t like this story in the past is the silly question system that Riley and Martha are trying to answer. Answering such questions as to who had the most sales isn’t something that really works. Also the fact that Martha rings her mother to answer the question. The second time that she rings her mom it’s done slightly better. There is a strange woman in the room with Francine. The actress is Elize Du Toit and she is honestly credited as Sinister Woman.

Graeme Harper directs a Doctor Who for the final time and he signs off in style. This episode has a claustrophobic and grubby feel to it. Watching it I felt hot and the episode does move along at a good pace. Ok I have found this episode to be better than I remember it. It’s not a classic by any means but there aren’t as many faults as I remember. The design of the ship is something that works in the favour of the story and it hides the fact that this is a studio bound story and that there aren’t any outside scenes.

The highlight of the episode comes when the Doctor is infected and he gets to say BURN WITH ME. This is one of the strongest performances that Tennant has given for quite sometime. I like that he gives a bit of vulnerability to these scenes and its not a side of the Doctor that we have seen before. Freema Agyeman continues to impress and manages to give a solid performance.

At the end of the day I think whilst this is a good episode, its one that sort of fills the gap in the running order. The rest of the season is something that I am really looking forward to especially tomorrows episode so this story is always one of those that is destined to be forgotten. Had this happened in the previous series then it would be one of the best but when the stories in a series are so strong then anything that isn’t as good wont stand out.

(730) The Lazarus Experiment

The sixth episode of this series is the first time that Martha has been back in modern day settings. Martha attends an event which sees a man turn back the aging process. The setting of this episode allows the whole Jones clan. There is a nice thing where a lackey of Mr Saxon’s plants a seed of mistrust in Francine’s mind. Whilst Tish and Leo are more willing to go based on what they see but people are whispering in her ear and the final words in the episode are hers because she is warning her about the Doctor because of what Mr Saxon has said. I am going to go on a bit of a rant here about the Jones family and in particular Leo. There is a point to have Adjoa Andoh and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Francine and Tish respectively) but what was the point of casting Reggie Yates. At the time he had a career on Radio 1 and clearly very busy so his involvement in pretty limited as a result. This is the most that we see of him in this series and there is a blink and you’ll miss it in the finale. They could have cast someone else in the role and they would probably have had a greater impact in the series and definelty the finale.

The interesting thing about this episode is how it seems like a lot of superhero moves which sees some smart or rich person who tries to change something or do something that is beyond them and things go badly wrong. That’s not a bad thing and Stephen Greenhorn does well with this idea but it’s one that is split into two parts. The idea of someone wanting to look younger is something that is never going to end well and it’s interesting to see how the Doctor deals with someone else who looks younger despite being very old. It’s almost as if the Doctor is jealous of Lazarus which is quite amusing.

Mark Gatiss stars in this episode instead of writing it. He plays Professor Richard Lazarus who starts the episode as an old man. Gatiss is one of those rare people who is just as good an actor as he is a director. Gatiss’ best scene comes in the church where he’s just wrapped in a blanket talking with the Doctor circling him. Thelma Barlow plays Lady Thaw and is the second person from the BBC sitcom Dinnerladies to feature in this series. Lady Thaw is someone who clearly wants money and power and doesn’t care how she gets it and so when she is killed I can’t find myself feeling sad. When Lazarus dies, there is a bit of sadness because he ends up dying whilst looking the same as he did before the experiment.

I thought that the creature that Lazarus turns into was really good. The only thing that let it down is the face. It looks rather poor but thankfully the close ups are kept to a minimum. The rest of the effects work rather well and there are several moments which look awesome and shows again that the effects department have taken a step in the right direction since the previous series.

There is a cool shot where the creature is chasing the Doctor down a corridor and the camera does a full 360 rotation and that was sadly ruined in the NEXT TIME trailer at the end of the previous episode. Despite this, it’s still a good camera shot. It’s another well directed episode from Richard Clark.

For me the best part of the episode is what takes place in the church. This feels more like new Who and the fact that Tish seems to have joined the Doctor and Martha is something that works well and the way that the creature Lazarus is defeated is quite good and overall I thought that this was a sort of return to form. It’s not a classic of the series but it is another good story that has some impressive moments and there are things that develop the Saxon story arc a bit more. Tomorrow’s episode the second anniversary and it’s a story that not in my Top 10.

(729) Evolution of the Daleks

I’ve just realised that I am approaching the second anniversary of this marathon. On the first anniversary I was watching Death to the Daleks which isn’t one of the greatest Dalek stories ever and its fair to say that before watching yesterday’s episode I would have rated these two stories the same. I mentioned that the Radio Times had spoilt the big surprise about the Human Dalek but its something that still bothers me because its nothing new that TV guides reveals big plot points on the covers every week but never to the extent that the cliffhanger is revealed.

Despite the lack of surprise when the Human Dalek. The start of the episode is rather quite good. It leads to a nice little conversation between Dalek Sec and the Doctor. The Human Dalek Sec is quite impressive when he is talking to the Doctor at the beginning of the episode. The whole reason why the Daleks are there in the first place is because they want to create new Daleks. To be honest it’s a rather dull plan.

I love the two Daleks talking in the tunnels and they are looking around to see if anyone is listening and it’s not something that we have seen before and it’s just fun to see. The three gold Daleks are quite the backstabbing lot and the whole thing about the Cult of Skaro is that they do all the thinking and there is a great bit where one of them says that they have dared to think about life with Dalek Sec.

The performances from David Tennant and Freema Agyeman are quite good. Ok they aren’t classic performances but they are the only things that make the episode worth watching. The anger that the Doctor during this episode is another reason why Tennant’s Doctor is very good. Martha does seem to take a new stride in the role as the companion and she ends the two parter in a better position than she started. Even all the supporting characters were on good form and its still weird to think that Spiderman has been in these two episodes.

The thing about this episode is that most of it was largely forgettable. It’s definelty clear that this episode lost some steam in this forty-five minutes. I still think that as a two-parter this story is far stronger than I have previously given it credit for. I think that after the good run of episode that there have been this series, this is the weakest episode of the series so far and it’s not the weakest Dalek story since they returned in 2005 but neither is it a classic.
 

(728) Daleks in Manhattan

Daleks in Manhattan is the first two parter of the series and it’s not a story that I rate very highly. In fact before watching this episode today I use to think that it might be the worst Dalek story of the new series and the worst Dalek story since Destiny of the Daleks. The big selling point of this episode was supposed to be a surprise and thanks to the Radio Times this was ruined before the episode even aired. The one Ace that the story had was dealt before transmission. This story was written by Helen Raynor who at this time is normally the script editor. This makes her the first woman since Rona Munro to write for the show.

The thing about this episode is that neither David Tennant nor Freema Agyeman set foot on American soil. They are filming in Wales but visual effects are used to create the idea that they are in 1930’s America. The visual effects have really taken a big step since the previous series and it really shows in these two episodes. Perhaps the best comes when Dalek Sec ingests Diagoras. The character of Diagoras is one that was always going to meet a sticky ending and that proved to be the case.

This episode features Andrew Garfield who has played Spiderman since 2012. Garfield plays Frank and it’s not a particularly important roles. He doesn’t even make it to the halfway mark before taken by the pig creatures. Hugh Quarshie also appears in this episode. Quarshie can be seen regularly in Holby City and plays Solomon in this story and is instantly someone that the Doctor and Martha can trust.

The experiment causes great conflict between the remaining members of the Cult of Skaro. All but Dalek Sec don’t think the experiment should take place because then the Daleks won’t be pure. There is something interesting about this and I actually think that it’s more interesting as to why Dalek Sec thinks it is ok for this to happen.  

Despite the revelation been spoiled by the Radio Times, the design of the Human Dalek is quite good. Even today it still looks like a great effect and it does make for a good cliffhanger but at the time I watched this episode was a little disappointed. However watching it today I found myself liking the episode a lot more. It’s not a classic by any means but there was enough to find it entertaining and a lot better than I thought. Whether this will still be the case in the next episode remains to be seen but I still think that it’s the weakest of the Dalek stories since 2005.

(727) Gridlock

Gridlock is one of those stories that I have always had a soft spot for. I don’t know why but I do and this series is going from strength to strength. The Doctor promising Martha with just one trip was never going to be just one trip and he breaks this rule pretty quickly. The first TARDIS scene is quite nice because it is The Doctor trying to tell Martha about Gallifrey is quite sad and it’s the first time that he’s stopped and thought about his home world since that little scene in The End of the World.

Gridlock is a very apt name because people move incredibly slowly. It takes 12 years to move 5 miles. I have days like that going to work.

Martha is kidnapped by Milo and Cheen because it means that their car has three passengers. Your not a Doctor Who companion until you have been kidnapped. This is the first time that Martha has been separated properly and Martha holds her own with Milo and Cheen. The Doctor spends the entire episode trying to find Martha and yet the episode works this way. It’s fun seeing Martha pretty much thrown in at the deep end and at one point comes to the realisation that she could die and her mum and dad wouldn’t know what happened to her.

The car that appears in different guises is the same set. Some credit needs to go to the set designers because it cant have been an easy task but they pulled it off. It helps that the different characters that feature in each car make it seem like a different home. Due to the speed that they are travelling at they are basically living in these cars. I don’t think I could live in them as there isn’t very much room in there and the lack of Bluetooth means that I couldn’t listen to any Big Finish on my phone.

Ardal O’Hanlon is a guest star in this episode and I know him best for playing Dougal McGuire in Father Ted. He is disguised as a cat and plays Thomas Kincade Brannigan. It’s hard not to like Brannigan because he is so cheerful. I think that the character could have featured more but I suppose the restrictions of the plot mean that he is stuck in the one car. It’s another example (Peter Kay being the first) of ideal casting been squandered.

The song Abide with Me is a wonderful addition to the episode and its lovely in the context of this bleak setting. Then again it’s not exactly an uplifting song because everyone (bar the Doctor) gets all emotional. A classic era makes a surprising return in this episode. There was no hint anywhere that this monster was going to return. The Macra last appeared in 1967 so it’s a monster that hardly anyone has ever seen. I don’t know what the point was really because they could have been nameless and it would have worked the same.

This episode sees the third and final appearance of the Face of Boe who as mentioned in New Earth reveals his secret and its that the Doctor is not alone. This is basically telling the Doctor that there are more Timelords. Although the Doctor is convinced he is wrong which will be explained in future episodes. There is a nice explanation about the Time War which is the first time that its been talked about any certain degree. This ending was perhaps a lot more downbeat than I had remembered in the past but overall I thought that the performances were strong and Richard Clark did a great job in directed what was largely a CGI episode and did a great job of making it seem like their were loads of cars instead of just one. The next episode is the first two parter of the series and from memory its not one of my favourites.

(726) The Shakespeare Code

Martha’s first trip into the past takes her to 1599. I will be honest that I haven’t been the biggest fan of Shakespeare. I did the usual stuff at school but could never really get into it and so the idea of spending 45 minutes in his companion wasn’t something that I was particularly looking forward to. This isn’t the first time that Shakespeare has been in Doctor Who. It was way back in 1965 and it was a blink and you’ll miss it moment but this is the first time that he’s so integral to the plot. The thing about this episode is that they filmed inside the actual Globe Theatre. Not even the Oscar winning film Shakespeare in London was allowed to film in there. I think that the fact they were able to film in there helps create a wonderful atmosphere.

This is the second episode in and Rose is still getting a mention much to the annoyance of Martha. The relationship between the Doctor and Martha is different to what the Doctor had with Rose and it’s refreshing that this is the case. Martha’s reaction to being in that time period is quite amusing and Martha doesn’t make it all about her like Rose did and I am liking Freema Agyeman more and more.

The effects of the surrounding area is truly impressive and looks wonderful. It’s something that they wouldn’t be able to do in a movie so it’s great they are in this episode.  They really have stretched themselves in this series and this is one of the most visually impressive episodes since the show returned in 2005. The effects used when the Carrionites are swirling around the globe is another superb effect and one that I think looks as good as it did in 2007.  If there is one thing that I don’t think works quite well is the masks of Doomfinger, Bloodtide and Lillith. They seem a bit poor but I don’t know if that is just because they haven’t aged as well as most things.

David Lennox Kelly plays William Shakespeare and does a really good job. Bearing in mind that he has free reign to play him as he does, I find that his performance to be truly engaging and it’s a shame that he hasn’t returned. Had he appeared in the Steven Moffat era then he would have been a regular character.

Gareth Roberts has done a great job in making the episode amusing but too much. It still feels like a Doctor Who episode but its having fun in it surroundings and the running gag is that Shakespeare is using lots of words and sayings that the Doctor uses. I have enjoyed this episode a lot and thought that the performances were very good, the writing was sound, the directing was just as good as the previous episode (which makes sense considering it’s the same director) and the whole vibe of the episode was a good one and I am really looking forward to tomorrows episode because its one of my favourites of the series.

(725) Smith and Jones

These new series are going fast. It only seems like five minutes that I was watching Rose and here I am watching the first story to feature Martha. After saying goodbye to Rose and briefly saying hello to Donna, we get introduced to Martha Jones and for a moment I just wanted to stat things up. Between the Christmas Special and todays episode just 96 days had past and that that is the shortest gap between stories since seasons 5 & 6 back in the late 1960’s and it’s the sixth shortest in the shows history. Having thought that the previous series wasn’t as strong as it could have been, this is the first one where the people writing for the show knew what sort of Doctor they were writing for and this shows. Like Rose, this has to introduce Martha and that means that there is a family to introduce as well. It really doesn’t take long for Martha to show why she’s better than Rose. Even her family is better than the Tyler’s.

The Doctor and Martha seem to hit it off straight away and it’s a different dynamic than there was between the Doctor and Rose. The romance is reigned in a lot with these two. There is a nice explanation given by Martha where she says she has a cousin that worked in Canary Wharf and this gets around how the two look the same.

The monster of the week is a Rhino looking race called The Judoon. They look really good and their first appearance is one of the highlights of the episode because to see them marching along the service of the moon isn’t something that could only work on new Doctor Who. The Judoon are basically policeman and it’s a great idea from RTD and I know they appear in future stories but this will always be their best appearance. They show their power in just towering over people and they work well in the story. The cool thing that takes place in this episode is the hospital that the Doctor and Martha are on is taken and placed on the Moon. That is a great idea and the visual effects help make it look really good.

Anne Reid returns to the show after appearing in The Curse of Fenric and in this she plays a blood sucking alien calling herself Florence Finnegan. She gets her blood by using a straw which was a source of irritation to many but I just thought that it was a really amusing way and it sort of doesn’t make the how blood sucking thing seem as terrifying as it would normally be. The Judoon are after her but she’s disguised as a human and she sucks the Doctor’s blood and is discovered by the Judoon so she basically trips herself up.

This is the series where the Saxon story arc begins and its not until the end of the episode where Saxon gets his first mention. It’s a blink and you miss it but at this time of the show, we had all got use to listening out for any mention of Saxon or Torchwood or Bad Wolf. Saxon got mentioned in the Christmas Special but the mentions are now goings to be far more frequent. I think that this is the strongest series opener that we have had. Rose was good just because we were glad to have it back and New Earth wasn’t very good really but this was the one which got it spot on and I am even more excited about this series.

(724) The Runaway Bride

It seems like there is a breath of fresh air now that Rose isn’t in the story although clearly there was going to be the occasional mention of Rose. The last Christmas Special had to introduce the Doctor and spent most of it with David Tennant in bed so this time it could be a proper Christmas Special. The thing to remember is that the Donna Noble that appears in this episode isn’t the one that would return in series 30. So the annoying way that Catherine Tate performs as Donna isn’t the way that she would continue to be like. The thing about her performance is that it’s very much like some of the characters that she played in her sketch. More about her later.

The comedy is quite good. One moment is when drivers think that Donna is drunk or in drag. What helps the comedy work is that both David Tennant and Catherine Tate are very good comedy performers and work well together.

One of the most impressive set pieces is the Doctor trying to rescue Donna from a moving Taxi whilst its on a motorway being driven by a robot Santa. The special effects used to make the TARDIS move around look really good and quite an exciting moment. Another impressive aspect of this story that works well is the Empress of the Racnoss. Close up it looks like good make up and prosthetic but when you see the whole thing it looks vast and impressive. Even her ship is very well designed and it almost seems a shame when she is transported to earth. Sarah Parish plays the Empress and gives a what could have been a rather comedic role.

The thing about Donna is despite being a rather brash personality. She’s not totally annoying. After enduring Rose it was just nice to have something different and on this rare occasion, the brashness is forgivable. It’s a good performance from Catherine Tate who has a less than enviable job of taking Billie Piper’s spot as lead companion.

Donna was supposed to be getting married to Lucas who turns out to be working for the Empress. At the time I didn’t see it coming but now it seems rather obvious. I’m not always quick when it comes to this sort of thing. I know when it was announced that she was going to be a companion that a lot of people thought that this was a terrible idea but I knew that they would tone down the brashness and she would become more palatable.

The company that Donna works for turns out be owned by Torchwood and they build it around the Thames Flood Barrier. It’s quite amusing that RTD used such a rather low key feature of London in such a way.

The story itself is rather good and moves along at a nice pace with some impressive moments throughout. The references to Rose were tolerable and Donna was used in a good way. At the time it was designed to be a festive holding piece until Martha joined the show. It was a nice Christmas Special and it was fun and in many ways a stronger special than the previous one. The NEXT TIME trailer that was shown at the end of the episode did a good job in reminding me how strong this series was and just how much there is to look forward to.

(723) Doomsday

Whether you like her or not, you cant deny that Billie Piper has had an impact on the new series. In the month that I have been doing this where she has been a part of the show, the one thing that was clear was that she has been more involved in the stories than any of her predecessors. Even Ace wasn’t able to pout and throws strops quite like Rose. Ok I am on the Anti-Rose side of the argument. This is the story where Rose is written out and I was severely tempted to have a sick bucket by my side as I watched this. The problems with this story largely stem from Rose. The first shot is of her standing moodily on a huge rock on the beach. Quite why she’s stood there like the welsh statue of liberty but that’s for another time. This story should really have been about the first proper encounter between the Daleks and Cybermen.

The sight of Cybermen walking through the streets is a great one and one that would have looked great in the classic era. It’s slightly frustrating that they don’t seem to walk quicker or run. I know that they run in a Matt Smith story but watching this today it seems really slow how they move.

The Daleks aren’t there to just make up the numbers. They have something called the Genesis Ark and that is quite is the more interesting aspect of the episode. The four Daleks that appear are the Cult of Skaro who are meant to be greater than the emperor. I think everyone had spent the week between this and the previous episode trying to guess what was inside the Genesis Ark. I didn’t guess that it was in fact a prison containing millions of Daleks.

The encounter that takes place with the Cybermen and Daleks happens quite early in the episode. It’s weird that neither side knows about the other. After all they have done in the universe its weird that they haven’t bumped into each other at some point. It was clear that they were never going to work together although I confess that I am slightly disappointed with this. It would have been cool to see a Dalek/Cybermen coalition. Sadly apart from a few moments they don’t really have much to do in terms of driving the story.

When Rose makes the decision to leave her mother in the parallel world, there was a part of me thinking that if things had worked out differently then she would have nagged the Doctor to try and find a way back. That obviously didn’t happen and we have the goodbye scene between the Doctor and Rose but the Doctor isn’t there. Although his hear is blowing in the wind so he is clearly in front of Rose. It’s a prolonged and frankly boring scene which only serves Rose the chance to get all blubbery and over emotional. She’s not happy that she’s stuck with Mickey, her dad and her mom and doesn’t care that worlds would end if the Doctor tried to get her back.

There is a bit where Yvonne Hartman as a Cyberman shoots all the Cybermen and as she is shooting, there is a tear coming out of the eye. It’s an oily tear but it’s a wonderful moment and is still impressive today.

There is a cool video about how Doomsday should really have ended. It can be found on YouTube https://youtu.be/QfK8y7KVADo . The final six or seven minutes starts a trend that carries on for the next two series finales where the main threat of the story is over and then there is way too much time given over to sentimental drivel. The very last bit of the episode sets up the Christmas Special in a way that I don’t think many people saw coming and that was with the sudden appearance of Catherine Tate in a wedding dress and even the Doctor is confused.

This episode is one that I find confusing to decide what I think about it. I think that it was good to have a Dalek/Cyberman battle but think that it was wasted because Rose was the centre of the story and the best thing about her leaving is that this wont be the case for a while. This season hasn’t been as strong as the previous one. I think that there were some good episodes but it didn’t have the enthusiasm and the energy that the previous one did. If memory serves me correctly then the next series is a much stronger one and more importantly, it doesn’t feature Billie Piper. Tomorrow sees the next Christmas Special and an interesting one.

(722) Army of Ghosts

This is the story of how I died are the words that were used in the NEXT TIME trailer in the previous episode and it gets used in the pre-title sequence. It’s clear that this scene happens at the end of this current adventure so there’s a nice journey to be had to see how she gets there. This biggest selling point of this story is the return of the Daleks and the Cybermen in the same story at the same time. It was always a question as to who would win if these two got into a fight and this story would give us the answer. As you would expect they don’t make an appearance until quite late in the episode which is rather frustrating but more of that in tomorrows review.

This story has a lot to do in two episodes, it has to write Rose Tyler out of the show and introduce and set up Torchwood properly and also give the series the finale that would match what we got in the previous series.

The episode starts off normally enough with the Doctor and Rose arriving back on earth with ghosts appearing out of nowhere. Sadly there is a moment which didn’t bother me at the time but now it does and its when cameos appear on TV. Way back in Aliens of London we had Matt Baker on Blue Peter and Andrew Marr on the news, now we have Derek Accorah (some BS peddler), Alistair Appleton (Cash in the Attic) and Barbara Windsor (Eastenders).

One of the more interesting things about this episode is that it marks the first appearance of Freema Agyeman who becomes the third person in Doctor Who to have started out as one character and then returns but in a different role. She soon get taken over by the Cybermen and then ceases to really have any purpose in the episode. In fact so little that she is killed before the episode is over. There is one slight issue with Torchwood. Torchwood is such a powerful organisation that it doesn’t notice when the Cybermen have set up a mini-conversion base in their building. On a positive note its typical Cybermen. They start small and use whoever is around to bulk up their numbers.

Mickey returns at the end of this episode with no explanation and a new name. He also manages to sneak a massive gun into the room where the sphere is and where he is working. The security is conveniently mixed because it doesn’t spot this and the Cybermen but it can tell when someone is using Psychic paper. Billie Piper’s penultimate episode in her original run is good for her because she gets to be a bit investigative even though she’s rubbish at bluffing her way into places.

The comedy is very well placed in this episode. If only it had been like this in Love and Monsters then I would have thought differently about that story. In this episode its typical RTD and by that I mean there are occasional gags which are delivered well by David Tennant. One of the more memorable ones is when the Doctor is trying to pass Jackie off as Rose and this gives the Doctor the opportunity to make some cheap gags.

The final few minutes are the best of the entire episode. It’s when we find out what is in the sphere (although thanks to the Radio Times we knew). When the ghosts are revealed to be Cybermen there is a wonderful few moments where the music helps create a feeling that Cybermen appearing all over the world is the epic moment that it should be. I liked this episode because it perfectly entertaining in the first half and really good in the second. If you compare this to Bad Wolf then this is miles better. I am hoping that tomorrows episode ends this story in the way that it should.

(721) Fear Her

Today’s episode centres around the London Olympic Games. When this episode was transmitted the games had just been awarded and the games themselves were six years away. Now as I watch this episode they are three years in the past and back in 2006 all the things that were used for the games seemed quite reasonable but before anything had been designed sadly they look slightly cheap. This episode was designed to be a low budget and lighter toned episode aimed more at children than usual. After being disappointed with the previous story, I was looking forward to the show getting back on track.

This is very similar to Boomtown from the previous series but unlike that story, this one doesn’t work as well. The reason being is that there was a moral message between the Doctor and Margaret Slitheen. Here its not quite as interesting. It seems like the 2012 Games are there to sort of cover over some of the plot hole cracks. The idea that a child could make people disappear by drawing them is quite a nice idea and also a graphite scribble attacking Rose is something that could have only worked in Doctor Who.

There’s a nice scene in the TARDIS where the Doctor and Rose talk about the alien race using Chloe and the Doctor mentions that he was a dad once and the look on Rose’s face was the sort of look she would have given at the beginning of the series. This was a bit of a blip really because she really has to take control in the story when the Doctor and the TARDIS disappear. Within minutes she’s wielding an axe and the day is saved without the Doctor being around. Ok so he takes the Olympic flame to the stadium but without Rose he wouldn’t have been there at all.

The performances from Tennant and Piper were perfectly fine and at least they were actually on screen. However the performance of Abisola Agbaje as Chloe Webber deserves some praise because she does the being possessed little girl really well and was the best of the guest stars. At the end of the episode the Doctor gives Rose a hint about what happens at the games and he says that Papa New Guinea in the shot put surprise everyone in the script although in reality they didn’t make it through the qualifying round. They didn’t even win a medal. The Doctor has lied to us again!

This episode is a lot better than Love and Monsters and it’s a little better than I had have thought of before. The humour is much better than in the previous episode and despite the on screen London 2012 images, the episode does well to fill the time before the finale. The end of this episode sets up the final two episodes and Rose’s departure from the show. The NEXT TIME trailer introduces Torchwood into the story. I am really looking forward to the enxt two episodes