(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