(799) The Day of the Doctor

The Day of the Doctor had a lot to live up to. When the show has celebrated a milestone it has had mixed results. The 10^th Anniversary ‘special’ The Three Doctors was an enjoyable and well performed story. The 20^th Anniversary was perhaps less successful although it did have its moments. Since then we have lost the chance to celebrate the 30^th and 40^th Anniversaries so this is quite a big moment. I was amazed when it was announced that it would screened at the cinema and I was over the moon when I was able to get a title at my local cinema. It was a great experience because there wasn’t an empty seat and the number of people that had dressed up was quite high and it was a great place to watch the 50^th Anniversary special. There was a nice little video that featured Strax and warned on cinema etiquette. Anyone a fan of Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode’s Film Review will be aware of the Code of Conduct and such videos aren’t necessary. But it was fun to see and also

Like the 20^th Anniversary Special, there was something that got in the way and on this occasion it was the fact that Christopher Eccleston didn’t want to appear in the special and so a War Doctor had to be found and John Hurt was the one chosen. John Hurt was the Doctor during the Time War and is the one that pressed the button on ‘The Moment’ that ended the Time War and wiped out the Timelords. Hurt is great as the Doctor and treats the role with a nice sense of sarcasm. He has a nice time of making certain mannerisms of the Tennant and Smiths Doctors and the Sandshoes and Chin nicknames were spot on. His story was only going to be for this story and the fact he regenerates at the end is just Moffat’s attempt to tidy up the continuity line problem that Eccleston caused. I might make a controversial statement but I just don’t consider Hurt’s Doctor as canon. Due to Hurt’s Doctor, it means that Eccleston is the tenth Doctor, Tennant was the eleventh Doctor and Smith would be the thirteenth but as I don’t count Hurt as a canon Doctor it means that Eccleston, Tennant and Smith are Doctors 8, 9 and 10 respectively.

When his Doctor meets Smith and Tennant’s Doctors it’s a funny moment because they are able to do comedy and seriousness in equal measure and they disappoint. Tennant’s first appearance in the role since 2010 is curious because it was like only a few months had passed and not three years. He looks slightly older but when Tennant is talking and running around its like its 2010 and not 2013. Billie Piper makes her first appearance since The End of Time Part Two and its not Rose that she is playing but an imaginary version. Whilst I have grown weary of her during this marathon, I thought that she did well with what she is given and bearing in mind that she only interacts with John Hurt’s Doctor she manages to make it look like she is actually doing something.

Matt Smith is also good and shares the limelight well and yet doesn’t lose face during the course of the story. He must have had a lot of pressure in not dropping the ball and he manages not to. Jenna Coleman also manages to not get lost in the shuffle which isn’t an easy things to do. The fact that there aren’t 20 companions to have to work with is something that helps Coleman standout.

The start of the episode is impressive because it’s a nice bit of the original theme and it then blends into colour and we learn that Ian Chesterton is the chairman of the governors of Coal Hill School and Clara is now a teacher there. The headteacher is W Coburn which is a reference to Waris Hussein who directed the very first story and Anthony Coburn who wrote that story. There are plenty of nods to the continuity of the show and I think that they were done in such a way that newer fans wouldn’t be confused by it and long time fans like myself would get them.

There are many great moments that occur during this story. The first good bit comes when Clara drives a bike into the TARDIS and the camera follows it in one single edit. The TARDIS bursting through the wall and knocking out a whole load of Daleks is another great moment.

Zygons make their first appearance since 1975’s Terror of the Zygons. I don’t quite know why they haven’t made a return until now but the wait has been worth it. They lost their planet in the first days of the Time War and want Earth as their new home. The transformation of human to Zygon is so much better than in 1975.

The first meeting between Tennant and Smith is very good and its always interesting to see multiple Doctors. They interact with each other very well and the nice bit of jealousy is something that is used at the right times and in the right way. The long running gag about not liking the new TARDIS console is something that was obviously going to be used and if there were a game of bingo then this would be crossed off the list.

The idea that all three Doctors have come up with an idea to hide Gallifrey and destroy the Daleks in the process is such an epic idea and one that could have only worked in a big bonkers special like this. When this start it leads to all twelve incarnations and their TARDIS’s come to save the day. Well actually thirteen because Peter Capaldi makes a very special cameo with just his eyes. That was totally unexpected and a nice treat for the fans. That wasn’t the only treat for the fans because the shock appearance of Tom Baker was one that everyone in the cinema gasped at. It probably p****d off the other Doctors but to be honest I don’t care cause it’s a great scene and it sort of makes up for the fact that Baker didn’t appear in The Five Doctors.

The final shot is of the Doctor walking out of the TARDIS and all the incarnations standing in a nice arrow line with Hartnell’s Doctor standing at the back was the perfect way of ending the special and it sets up a nice story arc about the Doctor finding Gallifrey. There was an awful lot of expectation riding on this story and I had very high expectations and part of me was expecting this to disappoint but I cant tell you how much I enjoyed this story. It was the story I wanted it to be and was well worth the jacked up price that the Cinema charged. This is the eighth story to get rated in the 8’s and becomes the second best story with 8.25. This is only the fourth story of the new era to get in the 8’s and overtakes Blink as the best story. I think that Steven Moffat should be applauded for doing this story and Marcus Wilson (producer) says that this story was a love letter to the fans and that’s the truth because it had loads of elements from the shows past and unlike The Five Doctors, it does it in a way that works and juggles a lot of balls and doesn’t drop a ball. On a related note, two weeks today is when the marathon comes to an end and this will probably be the last true classic story of the run but a lot can happen in two weeks.

(756) The End of Time - Part Two

The End OF Time is the final appearance for David Tennant as the Doctor (apart from his 2013 appearance). This is 47^th and final episode and is the sixth longest serving Doctor in terms of episode credited to. This is also his 1,468^th and final day as the Doctor and becomes stays as the third longest serving Doctor in that respect. It is also the 60^th and final episode for Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner as executive producers and the 31^st for Russell T Davies as writer and becomes the seventh most credited writer in Doctor Who ever and the most credited writer since the show returned in 2005.

The first scene after the titles have played is set on Gallifrey and it’s the most that we have seen of Gallifrey since the show returned. Sadly the room that the Lord President meets the other Timelords in is less impressive. I suppose that it could be argued that it just means that there is nothing to distract you and your attention could be focused on Timothy Dalton. Dalton’s character is called Lord President for most of the story but it isn’t until the end that he’s called Rassilon.

It’s nice that the drumming was started by the Timelords and he has had this all his lives. It gives an nice explanation as to why the Master has been the way that he has been since he debuted in Terror of the Autons. The idea of using six billion copies of himself to find where the signal of the drumming is coming from is.

When the Lord President arrives on Earth that is what things start to ramp up and soon Gallifrey appears above the Earth and I love how quickly things spiral out of control. The reason why the Time War was timelocked is finally explained and its quite a good one.

Bernard Cribbins is fantastic in this story and the scene where he is trying to get the Doctor to shoot the Master is one of the best scenes in this story. The fact that Wilfred is the one that knocks four times and causes the Doctor to pretty much sacrifice his life is something that would normally make him a terrible character but it shows how close Wilfred and the Doctor have become that he is prepared to do this ultimate sacrifice.

The performance that John Simm gives in these two episodes is much better than the one he gave in series twenty-nine. The Master is used rather well and is quite central to the story but not in his usual way. The fact he gives up his life for the Doctor is the perfect way for the Master to exit the story.

The Doctor jumping out of the ship to crash land into the main room of the Naismith mansion seems a bit of an over the top thing to do but its not as bad as the hover boat scene in Planet of the Spiders. I thought that the moment when the Doctor realises he is alive and then hears the four knocks is a heart stopping moment and the look on Tennant’s face is so sad. When he decides to go into the booth to let Wilfred out it’s a scene that is as emotional as anything in the show since it returned. Even when RTD was trying to be emotional, this was the first time that it seemed to have an effect on me.

The final fifteen minutes is given over to the Doctor saying goodbye to all of the people who have been a part of the show during RTD’s time. I mentioned during the Journeys End review that too much time was given over to the soppy sentimental stuff but that wont happen here. You don’t appear in so many stories without earning the right to say goodbye this way. The first people that he visits are Martha and Mickey are seen trying to dodge a Sontaran and have become a married couple.  That seems like a bolt out of the blue. Next was Sarah Jane and Luke also return and the Doctor saves Luke’s life after he runs into the road. This was nice cause because Elisabeth Sladen does seem to well up and it’s the last time that Sarah Jane would appear in Doctor Who because she passes away the following year.

Captain Jack is in a bar with Slitheen, Judoon, Adispose, the Hath and ends up hooking up with Alonso from Voyage of the Damned. The tune from Daleks in Manhattan is playing in the background. Next up is Jessica Hynes appears as Verity Newman who is a descendant on Joan Redfern from Human Nature. It was perhaps for time reason that they didn’t go back to Joan Redfern and instead went for her granddaughter. Whatever the reason for it doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s a nice moment. Donna gets married (properly this time) and sadly doesn’t notice the Doctor but Wilfred and Sylvia do. The Doctor goes back to meet Geoffrey Noble and I had forgotten that bit and it was a nice touch because Geoffrey would have appeared in the 2008 series had he not passed away. The final encounter was with Rose which was always going to be the case. It happens just before Rose meets Eccleston’s Doctor but I do wonder how Rose wouldn’t remember him later on.

After all the goodbyes are done, the Doctor takes a slow walk towards his TARDIS and I think that this is where Murray Gold’s music works its magic because it builds up and up trying to crank up the emotions of the moment. I suspect that Tennant’s final words as the Doctor aren’t 100% acting. There must have been a part of him during that scene that wanted to carry on but not everything can go on forever. As last words go “I don’t want to go” is a million times better than “Carrot Juice, Carrot Juice, Carrot Juice”. The destruction of the TARDIS was a great moment and this is the last time that it features like this (it makes an appearance later in the next series).

Matt Smith’s opening minute wasn’t the greatest start and I know that there is suppose to be a bit of madness to this part but it was perhaps just a bit too mad. That said I know certain people that I watched this scene with weren’t convinced that Matt Smith was the right person to play the role. It’s hard to judge someone after such a short time but I was convinced that he would prove everyone wrong and now it remains to be seen whether this is still the case.

The End of Time was a good story and I think that it gave Tennant the send off that he deserved. Tennant had a difficult job to do when he took over from Christopher Eccleston in June 2005 but over the course of his time on the show he has helped the show increase in popularity and despite some iffy moments, the Tennant era has been really good and it will be interesting to see how watching the Smith era an episode a day will match up with Tennant’s.

(751) Journeys End

Today is the final episode of the series and the final series that David Tenannt would do as the Doctor. This is a longer episode than normal. Just over an hour (1hr 3 min) which is the length normally reserved for the Christmas Special but this episode is given special treatment. Back in 2008 I was happy about this cause it meant 15 minutes more of my favourite TV show but watching it today I don’t think that the story needing that extra time.

The cliffhanger of yesterday’s episode was one of the best one for a long time and sadly that always meant that the resolution of it would be disappointing and to be really harsh on RTD, this was a bit of a cop out. He managed to put the energy of the regeneration into the hand. That hand then becomes a more human version of the Doctor.

The Osterhagan Key is a weapon that is talked about a lot and will basically blow up the Earth. It was never going to happen but it still an effective thing to use in the story.

I don’t know why but hearing Daleks talk in German is quite funny.

This is an episode where Donna is quite central to the story. She starts hearing a heartbeat sound and then manages to absorb some Timelord intelligence which is never a good thing. Seeing her manage to outsmart Davros and the Daleks is quite fun to watch. There is an explanation about the Doctor Donna line from Planet of the Ood. Catherine Tate does a good job of making all the technical jargon sound real and that knows what she is talking about.

It’s quite a while before Davros finally makes an appearance but it’s well worth the wait cause Julian Bleach gets to show us why he’s a great Davros. Davros isn’t really the leader of the Daleks but is instead working for the Daleks which is slightly disappointing because it would be nice to have Davros back as leader. Bleach manages to channel both Michael Wisher (in his voice) and the madness of Terry Molloy’s Davros. I did like the reunion between Sarah Jane Smith and Davros. They met in Davros’ first story back in 1975 and it’s a lovely fanboy moment but probably won’t mean much to many people who are new to the series.

The truth about the Doctor (according to Davros) turning his companions into murderers and weapons. There is a nice glimpse of the people that have died in Doctor Who stories since 2005. It’s a great moment because it does show that the Doctor’s actions have consequences. Ok he can’t control them but the reckless manner in which he roams the universe has consequences.

I had the thought that most RTD finales were ruined by slushing nonsense but in recent series finale’s it hasn’t been as noticeable. The main plot is dealt with and Earth is returned home meaning that there is nearly a quarter of an hour of the Doctor saying goodbye and this is a problem because it did go on way too long. What took the cake was that yet again the Doctor and Rose get their blubbery farewell. If all of that had been cut down then Donna’s goodbye would have been even better. I thought that Donna’s departure is really sad and I found it a more effective end that either of Rose’s. Donna having her memory wiped of the Doctor is very similar to Jamie and Zoe but back then they didn’t have Bernard Cribbins and he was great.

The music from Murray Gold was quite epic in this two parter. I think that this was the peak of his abilities (not that he has gone off the boil).

The visual effects team deserve credit because some of the crucible shots are superb and some of the best that the show has produced. It could easily rival what is seen in a Hollywood movie.

Yesterday I commented that the business with the bees was the first sign that RTD has started to lose the plot a bit and in todays episode there is another example of this. The TARDIS being able to pull the TARDIS like a tow truck pulling a broken down car is another moment where I really scratch my head wondering just what was going through RTD’s head. On the plus side there is a lovely shot of The Doctor (both of them), Donna, Jackie, Rose, Martha, Sarah Jane, Mickey steering the TARDIS with help from K9. The music is lovely and another example of how good Murray Gold is.

This was a good two parter and did a good job of using Davros and the Daleks and making it seem like the most important Doctor Who story ever. I do think that it was fifteen minutes too long and that the cliffhanger wasn’t resolved in the way that it should have been but the performances were all really good and this series as a whole has been quite good but not as strong as the previous one.  Now I am about to embark on the specials which spell the beginning of the end for the Tennant era.

(750) The Stolen Earth

This is going to be a stat filled review today. First stat is that The Stolen Earth is the 750^th episode of Doctor Who. It is also the 200^th story as well which is a point that could be argued. I would argue this by saying that Trial of a Timelord was four stories not just one and I have clubbed Utopia with Sound of Drums and Last of the Timelords. The BBC say that this story is number 198 and that Planet of the Dead is the 200^th but I think that we should leave it is it is.  This episode sees the return of Davros 81 episodes ago or 7, 185 days since the final episode of Remembrance of the Daleks. In the 2005 series, the Daleks returned, in 2006 it was the Cybermen that returned and in 2007 the Master made an appearance and so it was Davros’ time to make a comeback.

This is where all three shows that RTD is involved in are in the same story. Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures and their respective characters join the Doctor Who world. This is a arguably the biggest episode of Doctor Who. You could see it as Doctor Who’s answer to The Avengers film. Russell T Davies has to fit an awful lot into two episodes and that’s not an easy thing to do.

There is a slight issue with the idea of people able to make phone calls on their phones and yet the planet has moved. In one scene Luke is able to make a call and then in the next scene Martha can’t make a call.

When the Daleks’ voice sound, it’s a moment that gave me goose bumps. I can’t deny it but the sound along with the Murray Gold music helped make it seem like an big moment. The thing is that the reason for what the Daleks are doing isn’t explained. I think that there isn’t enough time to properly explain this but that didn’t bother me really.

It wouldn’t be a series finale without cameo appearances. They have become something of a calling card for Russell T Davies. However one of the cameos is quite interesting. Richard Dawkins makes an appearance and his cameo is interesting because he’s married to Lalla Ward. Paul O’Grady also appears.

The Shadow Proclamation has been mentioned countless times since 2005 and we finally get to visit it. Personally I think that it should be something that is talked about but not seen. During this period of the episode we learn more about the planets moving but Russell T Davies comes up with the idea that Bees are aliens. This is first instance that I think shows that Russell T Davies was starting to lose his grip on what works and doesn’t work. This is his last series as Head Writer (although he is still in charge for the specials).

Davros doesn’t appear until quite late in the episode and even then we only see his metal hand (blown off in Revelation of the Daleks) and his blue head light. We don’t get to see him properly until the end and then it’s the best couple of minutes in what is a superb episode. Julian Bleach has a difficult job because he will be compared to Michael Wisher and Terry Molloy. What is impressive about his performance is how he manages to mix their version into his own. The mask that Bleach has to wear is very good because it allows Bleach to very as expressionative as he wants to be. Wisher and Molloy didn’t have that luxury but thankfully the process has improved and we get to see the benefits. I just wish there had been more of Davros in this episode.

This episode marks the final appearance of Penelope Wilton and I love how she introduces herself as former Prime Minister (even to the Daleks). This short appearance seems to be designed to give her character some redemption because of what happened in The Christmas Invasion. It’s a lovely performance from Wilton and it reminds me of what was so good about the character.

The question that has to be raised in this two parter is whether enough time is given to all the supporting characters who normally are central characters. Luke doesn’t really have much presence in this episode but its Gwen and Ianto that have the better slice of the action but that’s because Captain Jack is so involved in the central story. Russell T Davies does manage to make everyone seem relevant to the story. Martha is in ‘New York’ with UNIT and then teleports to London but doesn’t really do very much yet seems relevant to the story.

The cliffhanger is quite possibly the best cliffhanger that the show has ever come up with. It starts with The Doctor running towards Rose and the Doctor being shot at by a Dalek. I thought sneaking the Dalek in to what was suppose to be a lovely moment was a great decision. The final shot is of the Doctor seemingly regenerating. Bearing in mind that at this time, David Tennant had announced he was leaving, it seemed like this was going to be Tennant’s final episode. I think the there was a genuine belief that the Doctor would regenerate. That week between episodes was an awfully long time.

(749) Turn Left

With yesterday being a Companion-lite today’s episode is the Doctor-lite episode however unlike previous Doctor-lite episode, this features the companion so this is the opportunity for Catherine Tate to show she is just as good as David Tennant was in the previous episode. It’s been a while since I have really looked forward to an episode but today was one of those instances. It is another episode that appears to be relatively cheap.

The thing about this period of the new series is that when you have created enough of your own history then you can use it as you wish. There are moments from The Runaway Bride, Smith and Jones, Voyage of the Damned, Partners in Crime and The Sontaran Stratagem/Poison Sky.

The whole idea of the episode is what happens if Donna turns right instead of going left. I think the only aspect of the episode that doesn’t work is that the whole putting a beetle on the back thing doesn’t really seem to have much relation to whats happening in the final two episodes.

This episode shows us what would happen if the Doctor had died. During the spiders star bit from Runaway Bride its implied he has died and this is when things really go wrong and when the Doctor seems to be out depth in Midnight, it seems that Donna is equally out of her depth in this episode. Without the Doctor around people at the hospital from Smith and Jones die (apart from one), the Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace and that means a radiation leak meaning the people are evacuated and this is when Donna’s life really goes down the shi**er.

This is the episode where Rose returns. This is the first time that she has properly been back in the show since her brief appearance in Partners in Crime. There have been the occasional glimpse of her on a screen or something so its good that she is finally back. The encounters between Rose and Donna are quite interesting. Rose isn’t as annoying as she was during her original run in 2005/06.

Catherine Tate gives a stunning performance. She has to basically kill herself to force her original self to turn left instead of right.  You would have to be a pretty cold sod to not thing that this was a very good performance from Tate. When you think of the Donna that we saw in The Runaway Bride then it seems like two different characters. Someone jumping out in front of a lorry is a brave thing to do in a family drama on a Saturday evening.

Bernard Cribbins manages to bring some humour to the episode. This episode is pretty light on humour and yet Cribbins manages to remind me that I’m not watching an episode of Eastenders. Jacqueline King is the surprise of the episode as she is really good and I have almost forgotten the rather nagging tone she takes in the Sontaran two-parter.

Sarah Jane makes a brief appearance during the hospital in the sky bit and characters from the Sarah Jane Adventures are mentioned. It’s like RTD is going to the trouble of slowly bringing them into the Doctor Who world.

We don’t see the beetle that’s on Donna’s back and it’s a wise thing because any more shots of it then it would look a bit dodgy. The shots that are short and simple and it’s the sound effects that make it more terrifying that it otherwise would have been.

The episode ends with Donna saying Bad Wolf and the Doctor realises that writing everywhere in the market place the episode is set in says BAD WOLF. I like how even the TARDIS has BAD WOLF written everywhere. This episode compliments Midnight really well because it shows how good the two leading characters really are and it allows them to have the same amount of screen time and sets up the final two episodes of the series really well. Recently Big Finish released The Worlds of Big Finish and now I am about to embark on The Worlds of Russell T Davies. Question is whether this will work.

(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

(720) Love and Monsters

Love and Monsters is the only story (to date) that has made me angry. During the course of this marathon there have been stories that have disappointed me or bored me but no stories have ever made me angry. This story is first of what would become a sort of new series tradition where it doesn’t feature the Doctor or the companion as much. Due to the popularity of the show, fourteen episodes were ordered by the BBC but had to be made during the same production time as thirteen so that meant that the two episodes were pretty much made at the same time and there had to be a story where the Doctor and companion weren’t at prominent in the story as they normally would be. The thing is that no one really knew this before transmission (or I certainly didn’t) and that is what was the centre of the anger.

This story sees Peter Kay guest star in the episode. Now to me Peter Kay is one of the funniest comedians I have ever seen and his live show is fantastic and I was thrilled when I learnt that he would be appearing in Doctor Who. Kay appears as Victor Kennedy who then turns out to be is as an Abzorbaloff and the Abzorbaloff….well absorbs people. The character was a prize winner from Blue Peter and its not a bad idea and Peter Kay actually saves the episode.

Marc Warren plays Elton who is someone who has had quite a live which has centred around the Doctor. There are some nice nods to previous earth adventures including Autons and the events of Aliens of London. He joins the London Investigation ‘N’ Detective Agency or LINDA for short. It’s has a serious reason for existing but sadly it’s the comedy that sort of takes over. Ultimately the problem with the episode is that the comedy is totally out of place. Normally RTD does a good job of mixing the comedy

The flirting of Elton and Jackie is rather irritating. I don’t care about it and yet its given so much screentime. The reaction that Jackie gives when she discovers a picture of Rose is in his coat is quite good but sadly I have had to endure such nausea for so long. It’s not the fault of Camile Coduri and I actually feel sorry for her because of how much the character has improved during the course of this season.

There is another reference to Torchwood and there is a reference to Bad Wolf and also a Saxon reference which is the first mention of the next series story arc. In 2006, this didn’t seem to mean much but in retrospect it makes sense.

When the Doctor and Rose really get involved in this episode that is when it starts to get back to some sort of normality. If only the episode had been five or six minutes long then the episode would have been much better than it turned out to be.

“You upset my mom” is a line that a friend of mine uses when critiscing Rose Tyler. It’s not the worst thing about the character but its not the best thing that Rose does because within minutes she’s feeling sorry for Elton. Watching this episode, I didn’t have the anger that I did back in 2006. My rating for this episode is 6.22 and at the moment, it’s the second worst story ever. The previous worst story was New Earth and this is much worse because it’s another case of the humour not sitting right with me and it by far the worst new series episode that there has been. In fact I don’t think that there are many (or any) episodes which are worse. Anyway at east its out of the way.

(719) The Satan Pit

Something I didn’t mention yesterday was the voice of the devil. Gabriel Woolf did the voice of Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars thirty one years before this story was transmitted. Woolf has a great voice for the role and that is one of the successes of the story. Another thing is that this was the last story that was recorded and so this is the last episode that Billie Piper actually recorded although there are four more episodes left to transmit.

The episode pretty much hits the ground running from the very beginning and doesn’t stop until the episode ends. That is one of the few aspects of this episode that has improved in watching this episode again. Although it doesn’t take too long for me to remember why I have never rated this story very highly and that’s because it deals with faith and the devil. It’s not that I dislike this stuff or don’t believe in it but I just think that its not very interesting stuff to deal with in a 45 minute or two 45 minute episodes.

The Ood being possessed tells Rose that she will die in battle and it’s the start of Rose’s end in the show. The Ood are really good in this episode because they are creepy from the very beginning and seeing them scuttle around in the ventilation tunnels. It’s a shame that they all get wiped out because they were a slave race and they got possessed. I know they make a return but I think that this was their best story.

The Doctor doesn’t do a lot for most of the episode. It’s Rose that gets to do all the dramatic stuff and this is the best that Rose has been for quite some time. There were some moments where she was a bit cocky but not over the top. The Doctor spends most of the episode literally hanging around. His time doesn’t come until he meets the Devil. It’s very hard to act convincing against something that isn’t there but David Tennant is one of those actors that can do this very well.

The effect of the Devil is one of the most impressive that there has been in Doctor Who. It’s the sort of thing that would look good in a Hollywood picture. Goodness knows how much money was spent on this. I love to think about what this would have looked like in 1976 or 1986, I think that it wouldn’t have looked as good.

This has been a good episode to watch and the two episodes together worked quite well. The characters were all interesting but I think that it was the setting that really got me hooked and the Ood that kept me interested. This isn’t as good a two parter as the Cyberman one but its not as boring or bland as I have previously thought. It goes even more in my estimation when I think about tomorrows episode. Tomorrows episode is one that I have been dreading since I started the new series era of this marathon.

(718) The Impossible Planet

Today’s episode is the start of a two parter which I have never really rated very highly. I don’t think that there was a particular reason for this but when I started today’s episode, I was hoping that something would show me why my opinion should be changed. This episode sees the first appearance of the Ood which are one the more successful creations from the Russell T Davies era. It doesn’t take long for the first ‘that’s Ood’ joke. The Ood are a slave race basically and the pre-title scene was a pretty big clue as to what they are capable of.

This story is one of the few base under siege type stories that have appeared in the new series and its one where the TARDIS is of no use to the Doctor and Rose. The TARDIS has gone and in this episode it appears that it’s unreachable. I like it when this happens because it means that the Doctor has to really try and sort things out and can’t just use the TARDIS as a convenient tool like he does with the Sonic Screwdriver and Psychic Paper.

One thing that I have noticed about this episode is how quickly the tension starts. There is a chilling factor that there hasn’t been in Doctor Who since it returned and one of the reasons might be because of the claustrophobic feel of the story. When the Ood start to go a bit wrong then I think the episode really gets going. The evil Ood are great fun to watch. The Ood are quite strict in their movement and the way they hold themselves which is what I think makes them creepy.

The scene where the Doctor and Rose talk about the Earth is a nice one. Rose’s phoning back home would normally be annoying but for some reason I didn’t find it to be a problem and this is the first time for a long time that I haven’t found Rose annoying. Another good scene is when the Doctor and Rose discover that Scooti (MyAnna Buring) has died. The effect used is simple yet effective but the character was never really given enough time for us to care and so

When Toby (Will Thorp) is normal then I don’t really care about him because he seems  bit wet but when he becomes possessed then I think that the character is really good and the way he kills Scooti is quite grim for new Who.

I haven’t mentioned him since I embarked on the new series but Murray Gold’s music is really good. There are a few moments where it really helps add to episode and one moment in particularly that comes to mind is Scooti’s death where the music really is fantastic. There is an argument where if you notice incidental music then it means that the story has failed (this argument could be levelled at all aspects of a story) but I don’t necessarily agree. Sometimes I think that is true but in this case the incidental music is a bonus.

The cliffhanger is rather good because of the two different perils that the Doctor and Rose face. The Doctor is staring into the huge hole in the ground and Rose is under threat from newly possessed Ood. The episode as a whole hasn’t really improved in as greater way as I was expecting. There are things that I do like about this episode but there is something that doesn’t grab me like I would have expected. Maybe the next episode will be the one that grabs me but I don’t see that happening. It’s been written and directed but there’s something missing.

(717) The Idiots Lantern

The Idiots Lantern is the second story from Mark Gatiss and having been impressed with The Unquiet Dead, I watched this in 2006 wanting this story to be just as good. The story sees the Doctor and Rose arrive in 1953 just in time for the Queen’s coronation. At first they think they are in New York to see Elvis but it wouldn’t be Doctor Who if things went smoothly and I’m sure even in 2006, the budget wouldn’t stretch to filming in New York. Despite just being a face on a TV screen, Maureen Lipman is a fantastic villain. She performs in a way which is quite chilling and disturbing. Not many people would be able to pull this off but credit to Maureen Lipman for being one of the best villains in the series (behind the Cybermen and John Lumic) so far.

I love how the Doctor has fun at Eddie Connolly when Eddie thinks that his wife should be putting up the bunting and the Doctor replies by asking him if he thinks the Queen should be putting up the bunting. The Connolly family is quite interesting and Mark Gatiss deserves credit for this. Eddie is the breadwinner of the family yet treats his family in a less than ideal way and by the end of the episode he has been chucked out of the house.

I am quite impressed that they have managed to make the streets look like 1950’s London instead of 2006 Cardiff. They pulled this off in The Talons of Weng-Chiang but most of that was at night whereas in this story it’s mostly in the daytime. Another that is impressive is the effects of creating faces without any features.

There’s a bit towards the end where the Doctor is trying to stop Magpie and the Wire from finishing their plan and he has to climb the TV antennae and you would have thought that he would have known better considering how his fourth incarnation ended. That said having watched Doctor Who Confidential, I saw how this scene was filmed and it does mean that some shots look less impressive as a result.

This doesn’t quite have the same quality as The Unquiet Dead but there are things in this story that I liked. I thought that the fun factor returned between the Doctor and Rose and the idea of the TV taking people’s faces is one that works brilliantly. After the dark tone of the previous story, this episode brought a lot more humour and brightness that was needed. Gatiss has written a story that uses a historical event and manages to make a story fit around it. Euros Lyn does a lovely job in directing. There are a lot of shots filmed at an angle and I quite like this.

Now that I am around the halfway mark of David Tennant’s first series, I can say with confidence that I like David Tennant’s performance as the Doctor. It’s confident and Tennant has the ability to switch between funny and serious easily and is believable in both. Billie Piper has gone down in my estimation as she has become far too indulgent. The character of Rose wants the Doctor to herself but wants to have Mickey at her beck and call. The issue with the series has been that there haven’t been many standout episodes. The Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel two parter is the best story of this series with Tooth and Claw being the best single episode of this series. The rest of the series has been good to watch but lacks that spark that the previous series had.

(716) The Age of Steel

Todays episode pretty much hits the ground running with the Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Ricky and the bloke from Blue Peter run into the getaway van. The scene that follows show that Pete Tyler has been feeding information to Ricky. Ricky’s death was somewhat inevitable and this means that Mickey has to step into his shoes which bearing in mind what he has done since his first appearance

Lumic goes from being in his chair to being the Cyber Controller. His reluctance is perhaps ironic. When the Cyber Controller appears the chair is something that doesn’t look dissimilar to the throne in Game of Thrones. It’s over the top and just looks a little bit naff. The design of the Controller is rather good because you can see its brain and also its eyes are lit up.

I found Mrs Moore to be quite nice in this episode and thought that she could easily have become a companion. Her death is one that I didn’t see coming and her best scene comes when she and the Doctor examine the Cyberman that the just killed. The Cyberman’s name is Sally and she was getting married which just made the horror of what was going on even worse. This slant of the character is something that had never really been examined before.

The way that the Cybermen are defeated is having their emotional inhibiters disabled and can see what they have become thus causing them to feel pain. It’s a great way of defeating the Cybermen because it forces them to deal with the thing that they can’t deal with. The Cyber Controller tries to catch the Doctor after he has climbed up a ladder on a zeppelin. Only in Doctor Who would you have a scene that involves a Cyber Controller and a Zeppelin.  

What makes the Cybermen’s plan seem plausible is because there are so many Cybermen on screen. The best thing about new Who is that there isn’t three Cybermen or three Daleks to invade somewhere. In this story there are hundreds of them and it really adds to the effect. The visual effects to realise the machines used to convert people is very good and again this adds to the effect of something truly horrible being created.

The performances from the regulars have been mixed. I haven’t found Billie Piper to be as annoying as she was in yesterdays episode but this selfish streak that there seems to be in the Rose character is something that has only now come to my attention or at least becoming something that has bothered me. David Tennant has run around these two episodes in his usual manner but his big scene with the Cyber Controller was arguably his strongest. Noel Clarke’s final scene is really good. He decides to stay because his Nan is alive and he thinks that he is more useful than he would be back home. He knows that he will never be able to compete with the Doctor for Rose’s affection. I think that Mickey would have been better served if this had been his last story because this scene was just right in terms of performance and dialogue.

These two episodes have shown that despite it being 21 years since he last directed a Doctor Who, Graeme Harper has lost any of his ability to direct a great story. The Cybermen’s return has been a good one with a story that has restore some of the shine to the Cybermen after some of the rust that has affected the steel monsters. This is one of the strongest Cybermen stories since Attack of the Cybermen and in the ratings I give these stories this comes out better than The Invasion with this two parter getting an average score of 7.78 and Invasion getting 7.74. In reality I would say that Invasion is slightly better but that average score is over eight episodes whereas Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel are just two episodes so its not fair to compare them. Now the Cybermen and Mickey are out of the way, the series can settle back down and go back to 1952.

(715) Rise of the Cybermen

Rise of the Cybermen marks the return of the Zygons. Of course it doesn’t but if I have ended that sentence with Cybermen then you would have been thinking duh!!. This episode was originally aired in the 40^th anniversary year since they made their first appearance on the show. It’s fair to say that the Cybermen have often been the unwanted child of Doctor Who. Whilst everyone was obsessed with the Daleks, the Cybermen were often overlooked and it’s bizarre when you think of the stories that they appeared in during the Troughton era. Ok so there were a couple of dodgy stories, but on the whole they have been very good. This story also sees Graeme Harper return to the show making him the only writer/director from the classic era to have contributed to the new series.

John Lumic is the creator of the Cybermen in this story and like Davros he is in a wheelchair although this was due to an accident that Roger Lloyd-Pack had just before filming. It is a bit of serendipity.  The pre-title scene shows how he has the same scruples that Davros has.

Mickey’s poor treatment really shows why he wasn’t long for this show. The Doctor and Rose are giggling to themselves at the fact that Mickey has been pressing a button for 29 minutes longer than he needed to. The Doctor, Mickey and Rose arrive on a parallel world and within a minute I was starting to get irritated. The moment when Rose realises that her dad is alive she goes into selfish mode. Even though its not really her dad it doesn’t stop her at all and I just wish that she had run off into the distance and never come back. The Doctor says to her that Jackie and Pete might have their own Rose and they do but it’s a dog and that dog is less annoying than Rose the human.

There is a nice bit of continuity in this episode. The lorry that Mr Crane collects people up in is from International Electromatics which is the company that Tobias Vaughn was using a front in The Invasion.

Mickey’s exit starts when he goes to try and find his Nan who died in the real world. He goes off on his own little adventure when he is mistaken for Ricky. It’s quite fun when the two Noel Clarkes meet up. If you didn’t know what was going to happen when this happened then you really aren’t trying. Even I knew what was going to happen.

The design of the new Cybermen is very good. I like them because they look modern and the fact that they make a noise when they walk is something that should really have been done a long time ago. The big reveal is held off until the very end and it’s done in great style. I think that it’s one of the best build ups that the show has had since it returned. The Cybermen smashing through the glasses is a fantastic sight and Graeme Harper has done a great job in making the final few minutes of this episode some of the best since the show returned. The best thing about the design is the tear drop design on the eyes but I also like the voice and the blue light that appears when they talk.

This has been a really good episode with only Rose ruining it. The build up to the Cybermen making their first appearance in the episode is done well and the final few minutes are as I said before really good. I am looking to tomorrows episode because if it goes as well as todays then I think that this might be the best two parter since the show returned in 2005.

(714) The Girl in the Fireplace

The Girl in the Fireplace is a story that when I watched it back in 2006, I didn’t get because I missed the first few seconds of the episode. With today’s episode being Mickey’s first in the TARDIS there wasn’t the same set of scenes that there were when Adam joined. Whilst Rose might have been as keen about him joining as Adam, that seems to have been forgotten when this episode starts. I think that time travel suits Mickey because he takes to it rather well.

Moffat does his what is making a noise when the obvious source of the noise would have stopped. He did it in The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances. The creepiness factor that was evident in that story is in this episode because the clockwork droids are very creepy. Steven turns up the grimness to 11 in this episode with the fact that the droids have been using the crew for body parts. There is a camera with an actual eye in it and there is a valve pumping that is a human heart.

Sophia Myles plays Madame De Pompadour who is the focus of the clockwork droids’ attention and it’s a good performance. The character of Madame De Pompadour is one that is rather good because she meets the Doctor at a young age and then becomes someone that falls in love with the Doctor and their relationship is one that is doomed to fail. It’s sad really because in such as short time they have grown quite close and when the Doctor discovers that she has died the scene where he reads the letter is very gloomy.

The Doctor crashing through the mirror on the horse is very impressive and this leaves the last ten minutes about the Doctor being stuck in Versailles and Rose and Mickey stuck on the ship. The Clockwork Droids are defeated by the mirror breaking and its an interesting change of tact for a Doctor Who episode. The Doctor is the sort of person who is always on the move and now (for a short period anyway) he has to settle down and he could have picked a lot worse.

The mystery about the ship is one of the things that I like about this episode. The droids are after Madame de Pompadour because they think that when she gets to a certain age then she will be right to fix the ship which is revealed to be named after her. The Doctor is right when he describes them and thick because it is quite a silly mistake to make and its one that could have been prevented. It does raise the question as to why the crew didn’t attempt to tell the droids this or programme them about this.

This has been a good episode that looks stunning and has some strong performances in it. Steven Moffat’s track record in the show continues to go well. The story is also well directed and the story does well in going from the space ship to Versailles very well and more importantly, I have found Rose to be less annoying that usual.

(713) School Reunion

This episode is famous for three things. The return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 but perhaps just as importantly, Anthony Stewart Head appears and almost steals the show. When I watched this back in 2006 I was totally preoccupied with her return but fast forward nine years to today, I think that Anthony Stewart Head is probably the best thing in this episode. In time terms, its been 23 years since Elisabeth Sladen had been in Doctor Who but in marathon terms it been about four months.

The Doctor is a teacher and Rose is a dinner lady. Had she not gone off for adventures in time and space I could easily see her cleaning tables and dishing out chips. If Jamie Oliver were writing a Doctor Who story then elements of this would be his. Chips leading to something bad is the sort of thing that he would have come up with.

The thing that was going to determine whether Sarah Jane Smith’s return was how she was bought back and its done rather well. She’s back to do what she does best and that’s by being an investigative journalist. The look on the Doctor’s face when he first sees her is pretty much how every fan was feeling and that is just astonishment. The looks of astonishment continue when Sarah Jane stumbles across that TARDIS and then realises that the person she thought was just a teacher was in fact the Doctor.

The jealousy of Rose when she meets Sarah Jane does seem a bit of a step back for Rose after the progress made in the previous episode. I think that the jealousy isn’t quite as annoying as it was when Lynda was being friends with the Doctor but it’s still a character trait that is becoming annoying and the strop she throws when she thinks that the Doctor will forget about her only adds to the problem.

There is a nice little scene between the Doctor and Sarah Jane where the Doctor learns there are consequences about her travels with him. He also learns that she didn’t get dropped off in Croydon but in Aberdeen.

Back to the subject of Anthony Stewart Head. Everytime he is on screen I think that he is superb. His face to face seen with David Tennant is one of my favourite scenes in the entire episode. ASH plays the fine line between villain and pantomime villain. The Krillotaines are a good villain however with the return of Sarah Jane and K9 as well as Anthony Stewart Head, they kind of get lost in the shuffle which is perhaps the one things that the story gets wrong. It is interesting that when they are in human form they walk with their arms behind them. It’s also interesting that they are bits of other races and this is something that could have been looked at more.

I hate writing this but K9 sacrificing himself was a moment that made me like the character. I am still unmoved in my original opinion of the character but it was a lovely moment.

The goodbye scene between the Doctor and Sarah Jane is heart-breaking. It’s because of David Tennant and Elisabeth Sladen that it works and the fact that K9 is hiding behind the TARDIS as a surprise present is the perfect way to end the episode. When Sarah Jane is offered the chance to go back travelling in time and space, I wanted her to say yes but I always get disappointed when this doesn’t happen.  

This has been a lovely episode but it’s one that ultimately seems to purely serve fans who has watched the show for years. New fans might not have taken as much from it as fans like me but it’s another well written episode with some very good performances and it is nice to see Elisabeth Sladen back in Who again.

(712) Tooth and Claw

After being slightly disappointed with the previous episode back in 2006, I was relieved that this episode was as good as it turned out to be. Normally the idea of werewolf’s in Doctor Who would be something that would bore me to tears but for some reason this story worked really well. This episode starts the Torchwood arc off properly. The pre-title scene is one of the strongest that there has been since the show returned. The acrobatic monks sold this episode for me. It’s not the sort of thing that is seen in Doctor Who very often and yet I was just wowed by it. It’s not the only thing that I didn’t think I would see in Doctor Who and that is Ian Drury’s Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick playing loud and proud. This story starts off in the usual manner with the Doctor and Rose pretending to be other people but the Doctor pretending to be Jamie McCrimmon and Rose his timorous beastie.

One of the many successes that the story achieves is what it does with Queen Victoria. We see someone who is still suffering from the loss of her husband but has to maintain her composure of being head of state. It’s a very good performance from Pauline Collins who was in Doctor Who way back in 1967 in the Faceless Ones. Another of the successes is the werewolf design. A lot of time and effort went into the design and it’s a credit to The Mill (who do all the effects for the show) that it still stands up nearly a decade later. The whole look of the episode is beautiful and I could happily watch this episode again and again.

The pacing of this story is something that is pretty constant for most of the episode. Once the Doctor and Rose have got themselves well into story the pacing is nonstop and this term wouldn’t have been used during the classic era.

I like the bit where the Queen is implied to a werewolf and that the current Queen would also a werewolf. The final few minutes see the Doctor and Rose knighted by the Queen and banished from this world. The Queen’s final scene sees her create the Torchwood Institute. It’s a great end to the episode and after the light-hearted tone of New Earth, its nice that a more serious tone was bought back to the series.

This story is still just as wonderful as I thought back in 2006. It has pretty much everything that I could want from a Doctor Who story and it is definelty one of the strongest stories since the show returned and the best story of the Tenant era. It was well written by RTD and directed with energy by Euros Lyn. The next episode is one that I have been looking forward to for quite a while as it marks the return of a familiar face and a less interesting one.

(711) New Earth

It is perhaps the best thing to start the Tennant era with The Christmas Invasion because New Earth isn’t the strongest story of the series. I would be surprised if this story was in the top three at the end of the series. I have never been a huge fan of this story but I have never understood why until now. I think that it’s the comedy is misplaced. I have commented how RTD has done well with slipping in comedy in places that it shouldn’t work but on this occasion the comedy really doesn’t work and as a result I find the whole episode doesn’t work.

The comedy seems to come from Cassandra being in a different body. She starts off by being in Rose’s body leading to a bit where Rose kisses the Doctor and then she moves into the Doctor’s body and jumps a few more times. It is fun seeing David Tennant and Billie Piper play amusing versions of themselves. Cassandra/Rose referring to herself as a chav is still funny and seeing Tennant play a camper version of himself. The scene where the Doctor and Rose kiss is something that was clearly a big selling point because it featured in the trailer at the end of the Christmas Invasion but its not 1996 its 2006 because very little drama was raised as a result.

What’s quite amusing is that Adjoa Andoh plays Sister Jatt and goes on to play Martha Jones’ mother. The cat people seem nice and pleasant at first but they have a hidden secret. Their secret is that they have a huge lab with people infected and bred with every disease so that treatments can be found. The cat make up is very good and must have been expensive because only three of the cat people’s faces are seen, the rest are covered up. I think that more time could have been spent on what the cat people’s motives were and the Cassandra stuff could have been shelved.

The Face of Boe makes his second appearance and he’s dying. He doesn’t really add much to the story apart from telling the Doctor that they will meet a third and final time and he will reveal a secret. To be fair I don’t see much reason for why the Face of Boe would be there and why he would need to make another appearance in the show. He worked well in The End of the World but in this he doesn’t add anything to the story.

The Doctor saves the day in truly spectacular fashion by using every vaccine to cure everyone that has been infected. Also that’s not the final thing that happens. The final thing is when the Doctor does something nice an allows Cassandra (who has now got inside Chip) to go back in time and tell herself that she is beautiful. It’s a nice ending I suppose and it is pretty much the end for the character.

This isn’t as bad an episode as I thought. It’s not great by any means but I think that after the previous episode this wasn’t the right time to be trying this time of episode. I think that it’s one of the weakest episodes since The Long Game so that’s a good run of episodes that the show has been in. Watching the trailer for the next episode just makes me want to watch it now but I must be disciplined.

(710) The Christmas Invasion

So today I start the David Tennant era and I yesterday I said I wasn’t going to watch it but I cant think of a proper reason why not so instead of just watching it as an episode and then waiting until tomorrow to watch the opening episode. This is technically the first episode for David Tennant although its only eight minutes long and nearly two minutes of that is taken up with the reprise and the titles. It’s not fair really to rate this episode as it only serves a purpose in telling fans what happens between the regeneration and the TARDIS crash landing in the Christmas Invasion.

David Tennant in Christopher Eccleston’s costume is odd and its good that he doesn’t stay in it for long. I suppose that one thing this episode does is get through the inevitable ‘its not the Doctor thing’ although it does carry on to a certain extent in future episodes. It’s an interesting portion that doesn’t really add anything and if you hadn’t watched it at any point then you wouldn’t have missed anything.

Due to the success of the previous series, a new series was commissioned but also a Christmas Special was added to the list. This was only the second time in the shows history that it had aired on Christmas Day but this was designed as a Christmas Special and not just a throwaway episode in a twelve part Dalek epic. At the moment its late April and the sun is shining and the weather is warm so its slightly odd that I am watching an Christmas episode now. With the special being 15 minutes longer it means that there is more time to tell the story and the opening scene is quite good cause the TARDIS crash lands and Jackie does the first Doctor Who gag of the new era. The new Doctor spends most of this episode in bed which probably wasn’t how David Tennant thought he was going to start his time.

Penelope Wilton returns as Harriet Jones but this time as the PM that the Doctor talked about in World War Three. She’s doing the same joke of introducing herself but the joke is suppose to be funnier because she’s the most famous person in Britain. Even when she’s delivering a sombre Christmas Day speech she manages to slip in some gags. She asks about the royal family and after a pause she turns to the camera and says that they are on the roof. It’s quite impressive how RTD manages to put jokes in when it seems to be totally inappropriate.

The Robot Santa’s are a wonderful design as its just a bonkers idea but one that works and it works so well that RTD brings it back the following year. Another great thing that happens in this episode is the attacking Christmas Tree. Only in Doctor Who could an aggressive Christmas Tree feature in a Christmas Day episode. The main threat of the episode are the Sycorax who are a good looking monster. They show their credentials as villains but hypnotising a group of people to walk to the edge of high rise buildings and threaten to make them jump.

When the Sycorax ship arrives on Earth the way it is shot is very much similar to Independence Day when the ship is hovering over New York City. This is when the episode starts to take a step up because its when things start to go a bit wrong. It’s quite good how they manage to get the Doctor, Rose, Mickey and the TARDIS aboard the Sycorax ship. It’s also quite good how they manage to get the Doctor up and mobile and really into the story. His first scene when he is himself is great cause it starts his time in the show properly. Tennant has a great skill of balancing drama and comedy. I had always been unsure about Christopher Eccleston’s ability to do comedy but I overcame that but I have never been in doubt about Tennant’s comedy ability and he seems to be able to do both very well and its hard not to like the Doctor when he is doing comedy.

It’s nice to see the Doctor doing a bit of sword fighting. When he was doing the fighting I was reminded of the sword fighting that Jon Pertwee’s Doctor and the Master did in The Sea Devils. This was better because it was more dramatic. This fight sees the Doctor lose a hand (something which becomes handy in Torchwood and a future Doctor Who story) but RTD creates a new piece of Timelord mythology when in the first 15 hours of a regeneration cycle he can grow back his hand.

Torchwood gets started in this episode with Harriet Jones mentioning them. It is responsible for destroying the Sycorax ship and this is an important moment because it is when the Doctor angry and it sparks the end of the Harriet Jones regime. Torchwood is the story arc for this season and it makes much more sense than the Bad Wolf arc.

I love the scene where the Doctor is trying on clothes. The song is nice and sung well and it blends in well with the Christmas dinner. Everything seems to be back to normal now and the troubles of the Doctor regenerating is sorted. The final scene sees snow falling or ash as it turns out to be but its looks like snow so that definelty makes it a Christmas special. It’s a nice end to what has been a rather good Christmas special. It did what it needed to do and did it well. It starts the Tennant era off in fine style

(709) The Parting of the Ways

So this is the end for Christopher Eccleston. After just thirteen episodes, I have reached the end of the ninth chapter of my marathon. I think that this is an important episode for two reasons, it has to end the season off in the right way and it also has to give Eccleston the ending that he deserves. With the Daleks not appearing until the end of the previous episode it means that they hit the ground (or air) running from the very beginning and its great to watch.

The Rose I’m coming to get you line from the previous episode is rather cheesy in my opinion. It’s the only thing that Christopher Eccleston does wrong in the two episodes.

The effect of the rockets hurtling towards the TARDIS in a game of chicken is a great moment and shows that this wasn’t a cheap episode. The Dalek being exterminated inside the TARDIS isn’t something that gets the credit it deserves. People might moan on about the temporal grace thing but that’s nonsense anyway and it’s a great moment. A funny moment comes when the Anne Droid destroys a Dalek. It’s quite impressive that RTD managed to find time to put a gag in.

There isn’t a moment when the visual effects disappoint. The shots of the fleet surrounding the Gamestation and the millions of Daleks approaching it are some of the finest in Doctor Who history. This is the sort of thing that they would have killed for during the 60’s and 70’s but thanks to technology being cheaper its now achievable.

The Daleks are quite interesting in this story because they aren’t pure Daleks because they have human genes in them. They start talking about god of all Daleks and blasphemy which isn’t something that I would have expected the Daleks to go on about. The Oncoming Storm is the Doctor’s name on Skaro and it’s a great name and it fits the current Doctor. The Doctor shows no fear in front of the Daleks but has a harder time of doing this in front of the Dalek Emperor. This is the same Dalek Emperor (supposedly) that was seen way back in the 1967 story Evil of the Daleks. The Daleks are unstoppable and its difficult to see how they could be defeated. It’s the first time for an awfully long that they have come across like this. There’s a great scene where some Daleks pop up into Lynda’s view of space and with a chilling silence they smash the window and as a result kill her. It’s another impressive visual.

Rose has gone back to being annoying again. The jealous looks that she gives when Lynda is showing some signs of friendship towards the Doctor. It’s all about her and to show how annoying she has become I actually found Jackie to be perfectly normal. The scene with her, Jackie and Mickey show is one that is saved by Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri and almost ruined by Piper. Rose admits to Mickey that there is nothing on earth for her right in front of him. I think I have joined the Anti-Rose group because that was a horrible thing to say.

The Doctor does his best to try and protect Rose by fooling her into the TARDIS and sending it back to her time. It is perhaps the most selfless act that the Doctor has done ever. The hologram scene with the Doctor is a great scene because it’s the first goodbye really and it’s quite sad. Even a cynical person like me found it slightly moving. It’s when the Doctor changes which way he is looking which makes the scene work.

This episode sees the Doctor and Jack kiss in what would be Jack’s final scene with the Doctor and Rose. It’s interesting in 1996 when the Doctor kissed a woman and the furore it kicked up and in 2005 there didn’t seem to be much drama which is a good thing really. This was probably the case because its wasn’t sexual but just friendly. It’s typical that just when Jack stops being annoying that he leaves the series. Obviously going off to be in his own series but it would have been nice for him to travel with the Doctor a bit more.

Rose ends being the one that causes the Doctor to regenerate which is probably another reason why people dislike her. I think that it was a clever way to get into the regeneration scene and shows that the Doctor is willing to sacrifice his life for his companion. I haven’t gone soft again on Rose but to be fair to her it is perhaps the only good thing that she does in the whole two episodes. She has seen into the heart of the TARDIS which is a great idea and its achieved rather well.

The regeneration scene is rather good and quite sad. I think that I know when the show has worked when the regeneration has a moving effect on me. In just thirteen days, Christopher Eccleston has done what William Hartnell did back in 1963 and set the benchmark for what the Doctor should be like. In a recent interview, Eccleston says that he is in David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi and I understand that because without his superb performances there wouldn’t have been future series. David Tennant’s first scene seems quite tame in comparison to other post regeneration debut scenes but we would have to wait until the Children in Need special to get a glimpse at what the Tenth Doctor would be like. For the record I am going to skip that and I will explain why in tomorrows entry.

One final thing about Bad Wolf. Why Bad Wolf? Why those two words, they could have been something far less subtle and as a result it would have made a bit more sense. Oh well, now I have finished the Eccleston era, I don’t have to worry about it. It’s weird to think that I am at the tenth Doctor era and at the beginning of April I was watching the Seventh Doctor and I will be ending it watching the Tenth Doctor. The Eccleston era has been a triumph and it shows that Doctor Who was ready for a 21^st Century audience