(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.

(755) The End of Time - Part One

How do you end David Tennant’s tenure in the right way? It’s the sort of question that JNT had to answer when Tom Baker left the series. The way that RTD has decided to mark the end of the Tennant era was to have a two parter which has a combined running time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. The new Mad Max film was shorter. The opening scene starts with Timothy Dalton talking. An actual James Bond is in Doctor Who. Dalton is credited as The Narrator but it’s clear by the way that he is talking that he is far more important to the story than it seems. The Master returns to this story but the thing about the last time he was in the story it seemed like he was done in a permanent kind of way. I remember reading that the Master was suppose to take part in Jon Pertwee’s final story but the death of Roger Delgado put a stop to that.

Bernard Cribbins returns (which is always a good thing). It’s quite good that he gets a credit in the title sequence along with John Simm and David Tennant.

There is a woman that appears in a church scene with Wilfred Mott and her identity is a bit of a mystery. It turns out that the woman is actually the Doctor’s mother. I think that this could have been clearer.

The business of the ring falling to the ground and being picked up in Last of the Timelords is finally addressed and it was picked up by a member of a group of people who are believers of The Master/Harold Saxon. They bring him back and the thing that sets it all off is the lipstick from Lucy Saxon. This is something that I think is a bit of a stretch and that she would still have the Masters imprint on her lips are such a long time. However during the ‘regeneration’ process things wrong and this is what makes the Master mad (I mean madder) and this is what I like about the Master. When the Master is ripping a cooked Chicken to pieces it shows how mad the character is.

There are two people that are totally annoying. I found Joshua Naismith (David Harewood) and Abigail Naismith (Tracy Ifeachor). They are wealthy people and I just cant stand them from the very moment that I first saw them. I quite like David Harewood as an actor as he is very good in Homeland but here he poorly served by a character that is a poorly realised part of the story. The characters get the comeuppance that they deserve when they get taken over by the Master.

The scene where the Doctor and Wilfred are talking about dying is one that I found really good. It shows how good Wilfred would have been as a companion. I know the in-thing that the companion has to be young but he was only about 81 at the time so that’s quite young. Isnt it? The downside of this story is that it’s the last time that Bernard Cribbins will feature in a Doctor Who story. I suppose I will have to enjoy the final episode even more. Catherine Tate makes a sort of cameo appearance. It’s weird to think that just a few days ago she was a companion and now she is reduced to a basically a supporting role. The two cactus like characters have more to do in this story.

President Obama announces a plan to fight the recession. It’s something that gets mentioned a few times and to be honest I couldn’t be bothered with it. The only reason to have it in the episode is that he turns into the Master. When Obama appears there is some clever camera angles to hide the fact that its obviously not the President.

The whole episode builds up to the Master becoming every single human on the planet. It’s such an epic idea and it works really well. It’s odd that a Christmas Special would have a cliffhanger but it is an ending that the story deserves. The cliffhanger sees Timothy Dalton (Rassilon) standing in front of a chamber of timelords. The sight of them is superb and is the perfect way to leave things. I found this episode to be largely good and think that the 75 minute finale will be just as good as it needs to be.

(747) Forest of the Dead

I can’t believe that I didn’t mention that Silence in the Library was broadcast seven years ago yesterday.

It’s fair to say that things go a bit mad in this episode. It goes mad from the very beginning. Donna starts the episode in some sort of psychiatric hospital. The jumping from one location to another which is a simple narrative tool is used in quite a creative way because Donna notices that things are moving quite quickly. Within the space of a few minutes, she has gone from being a patient, to falling in love, marrying and then having kids. It’s a great performance from Catherine Tate. For anyone who doubted whether she would be any good during this series should watch this episode.

The girl who seems to be at the centre of the story is also rather good. She is CAL and is the computer. It’s very rare that a young person is anything other than annoying but I thought that even though she doesn’t really interact with anyone apart from Dr Moon and her dad she still manages to give a good performance. There is a woman in black vibe with Donna as a woman dressed in black with a veil over her face is hanging around Donna and it turns out to be what is left of Miss Evangelista. This is a different Miss Evangelista from the previous episode and I thought that she was rather good.

There is an argument that could be made about whether the skeleton heads in the costumes are a bit phoney. I am of the opinion that they are quite good because there are a few moments where the skeleton heads seem really creepy and I think that Euros Lyn has done a good job in these two episodes making these things work rather well.

This is the first story to feature River Song and yet in her timeline it’s her final story because she ends up giving her life instead of the Doctors. She ends up in the same world that Donna found herself in at the beginning of the episode. I suspect that once I have finished this marathon I will have to watch all the River stories in chronological form to see if it makes sense. I don’t think it will.

This has been an enjoyable two parter and I have liked this a lot more than I was expecting to and a lot more than I did in 2008. I have been impressed with the performances of David Tennant and Catherine Tate and this is a good story for Alex Kingston. The next two episodes are two very strong episodes so at this stage of the series I have to say that it has improved greatly in my opinion.

(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.

(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.

(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

(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.

(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.

(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.

(699) The Unquiet Dead

So after going into the future in the previous episode, its times to go into the past. I think that there is one thing that the BBC do well and that is period drama and they showed in The Talons of Weng Chiang that they can do it well and in 2005 this was still very much the case. The pre-title sequence is a rather scary and amusing scene. An old woman is dead but comes to life and there is a little bit of comedy from the undertaker who is trying to close the coffin but is being stopped by the newly resurrected woman. The old woman coming towards the camera is something that is still impressive no matter how many times I have seen it in the last 10 years.

Mr Sneed (Alan David) is a rather amusing character and with the subject of death being at the heart of the episode, the humour is needed. David plays the character really well and its hard to dislike him even he has put chloroform over Rose. Eve Myles appears in this episode as Gwyeth and watching back then no one could have known just how much of a part of the Doctor Who world Eve Myles would become. I like the character of Gwyenth and think that she was the best of the supporting characters.

Charles Dickens is the first historical character to feature in Doctor Who. Dickens is played by Simon Callow and it’s incredible to think that someone of Callow’s calibre being in the show. Especially when there was no guarantee that the show would be welcomed back. It’s a great performance from Callow from start to finish. He brings a new side of the writer that I don’t think I had seen before. He is rather sorry for himself and by the end of it he has become a new man. When the Doctor tells him how his books will be received it’s almost too much for him. The fact he gets to end the episode is a nice touch as far I was concerned.

I love the scene where the Doctor realises that he is riding in Charles Dickens’ carriage. He is pretty much tripping over his words. Things get a bit awkward when the Doctor tells him to shut up. They make up a few moments later where the Doctor seems to try and make Dickens feel a bit better about himself.

Rose and Gwyneth form a nice friendship. It’s Gwyneth who uses her ‘special gift’ to bring the first significant mention of Bad Wolf. It’s fun when Gwyneth is describing what she can see in Rose’s head about modern day London and it’s her reaction to how people are dressed really shocks her. The Bad Wolf mention is what really effects Gwyneth and it’s from this moment that her part of the story really becomes relevant.

A monster/creature living in gas form is something that could have only worked in the new series. It would have been a rather poor CSO had it been done before 2005. The effect of the girl that appears in the séance is one of the highlights of this visual effect. The Gelth come across as first as a race that have fallen on hard times and want to use the dead bodies as vehicles which causes some conflict between Rose and the Doctor. Although as was inevitable, they start to turn of the Doctor and the other when they get into the human bodies. There’s a bit where all the dead are trying to get through the cage door in a way that reminds me of countless scenes in The Walking Dead. I like how its Charles Dickens and Gwyneth are the ones that save the day. Gwyneth gives her life to stop the Gelth.

I did like this episode although I must confess that I haven’t enjoyed it’s as much as I have done in the past. Three episodes in and the reboot still feels like it’s in a honeymoon period. It’s a story that is written with a nice mixture of humour and gothic and there will be more Gatiss scripts but I don’t think that it will have the visual loveliness that this one has. I am looking forward to the next episode because it’s the first two parter of the new era.

(698) The End of the World

So after the initial buzz of the reboot, now we get to the meat of the new series which is whether it could stand up with new stories and new monsters. It’s interesting that the Doctor is basically turning into a galactic taxi driver, asking Rose where she wants to go. The Doctor ends up taking Rose to the day that the Earth dies. Literally the end of the world. The Doctor isn’t quite the cheeriest person to go on a trip with. The Doctor delivers a nice bit of exposition where he talks about how there is a trust that has kept the continents of Earth and now the money has run out its being left to blow up. Rose brings up a nice point that the continents drift and being five billion years in the future then surely they should have moves, she even mentions that she saw something on Newsround Extra.

This episode introduces the Psychic Paper which is a great creation from Russell T Davies as it becomes the new series version of the Sonic Screwdriver. I think the problems that people have with the screwdriver is the same problem that I have with the Paper. It’s just too convenient for my liking. It’s amusing at first but after five years of seeing it, the prop becomes too simple a plot device. This is an episode which introduces Rose to aliens and in a way introduces new fans to the sort of aliens that they are This episode sees the first appearance of The Face of Boe which having watched the show since it returned I know now that this is in fact Captain Jack Harkness if you believe that nonsense. I can remember being disappointed with the Moxx of Balhoon because when I first saw the picture of this creature I thought that it would be the new series version of Sil but in fact he’s a bit of a disappointment.

The visual effect of Cassandra is something that is astonishing. In fact this entire episode is very astonishing. The engine room set is particularly impressive because its looks so vast. Zoe Wanamaker is the voice and makes the character work. It’s hard to like her but that’s why she is such an effective villain. There is a question of who bought the spiders on board and its obvious that it was Cassandra. That was rather disappointing from Russell T Davies. Another that doesn’t quite work is the rather clichéd fact that a switch that would save raise the shields just before the Earth burns is at the end of a very long path with a lot of propellers. I heard that this film has more visual effects than the film Gladiator. It’s clear that this was a very expensive episode and it needed to be to pull it off. I loved all the external shots and also the effect of the earth blowing up looked stunning.

The phone call that Rose and her mom has is quite nice and I don’t find Jackie as annoying even though she’s only in it for less than a minute. Rose becomes a proper companion in this episode when she gets put in danger.

This episode feature the first mention of Bad Wolf which is the first series story arc. It’s a sort of blink and you’ll miss mention but it’s there. This episode starts the backstory for the Doctor. We learn in this episode that he is the last of his race and that there was a Time war. The moment when Eve calls the Doctor a Timelord seems to motivate him quite a lot which was a nice moment. The moment when the Doctor announces this is a fantastic scene and it’s delivered superbly by Christopher Eccleston. It’s a huge bombshell and I can remember thinking that its perhaps the biggest change in the show for quite sometime. I remember actually thinking that this does back the show into a corner which it was going to find difficult to get out of.

The music in this episode is rather interesting. We have Tainted Love by Soft Cell (or a different version of it) and Toxic by Britney Spears. When I first started watching Doctor Who, I never ever thought that I would hear Britney bloody Spears in Doctor Who. It’s a sign of the times perhaps.

Christopher Eccleston is again very good in this episode. He seems to be having fun when watching Rose meet all the aliens for the first time and when Jabe dies it changes the Doctor and he becomes rather more aggressive. He manages to get Cassandra back and allows Cassandra to die. “Everything has its time and everything dies” is a line that I wouldn’t have expected from the Doctor but it ties in with the new more hardline Doctor which has become the norm now but wouldn’t have worked in the 1980’s. After being sidelined to an extent in the previous episode, this is where Eccleston gets to show us his Doctor and its great to see.

This has been a good episode but it doesn’t quite have the energy that the opening episode had but again this episode did what it needed to do and introduce a new audience to what the show is about. Now the enxt episode is going back into the past and I think it will be another example to new fans about what the show can do.