(754) The Waters of Mars

The Water of Mars is the one special that I have been looking forward to and to save any suspense, I really like this story. If only the other specials before this had been this good then I would be over the moon. When this episode was transmitted on November 15, 2009, David Tennant had ben Doctor for 1,421 days making him the third longest serving Doctor ever. He has now been the Doctor longer than William Hartnell.

Lindsey Duncan is a proper actress and so she plays Adelaide Brooke. I think that the character is good because she comes across as harsh and not likeable at all but it was clear that she was hiding something and in a nice scene with the Doctor the moment is revealed because she saw a Dalek and the Dalek saw her but didn’t exterminate her. This happened during the Stolen Earth/Journeys End story and this was a totally unexpected moment in this story and I liked it.

There is one thing that doesn’t quite work and that is the Gadget robot think which after Wall-E looks like a bit of a cheat.

One of the things that I love about this special is that things go badly wrong very quickly. When Andy becomes the first infected its done in the background of Maggie talking and its very grim. Another thing about this story is that it’s a base under siege and if you have been following this blog since the very beginning you know I love a base under siege story. The Doctor realises quite quickly that he has to leave quickly because the crew of Bowie Base One die and for some reason he can’t change things like he normally would. This presents a great personal struggle for the Doctor because for most of the episode he says he cant and then changes his mind. This causes him to crack and decides that because he is the only timelord that he can decide who lives and who dies. This is the first time that Tennants Doctor has shown such anger.

He changes history and helps three of them (including Adelaide) survive. What I like when this happens is that Adelaide knows that this is the wrong thing and kills herself. This shows that the Doctor has gone too far and shouldn’t be taking matters into his own hands. The scene where Adelaide takes the Doctor to task over this its an unexpected scene at the end of what has been a grim and dark story. When she dies its like a slap in the face to the Doctor and the build up to his end starts.

The story uses such a simple thing as water and uses it in a wonderful way. Just one drop is enough to infect someone and this means that the body count is quite high.

The effect of the cracked lips and the water dripping from their mouth is impressive. The sight of them pretty much vomiting water is one of the best sights from this story. I don’t know who it was that came up with this aspect of the story but its one of the best monsters that the show has created since the weeping angels.

On a final note, this episode was dedicated to Barry Letts who had passed and I think that this was a perfect tribute to him. This is the sort of story that he would do and it’s the first time since Human Nature and The Family of Blood that I have felt that the story has been this good. After being slightly disappointed with The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead, it was nice that the good form has returned. There are now just two episodes left of the Tennant era and its weird to think that there isn’t much time left before the Matt Smith era.

(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.

(745) The Unicorn and the Wasp

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

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

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

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

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

(741) Planet of the Ood

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

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

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

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

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

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

(735) Utopia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(731) 42

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

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

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

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

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

(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.

(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.

(639) Revelation of the Daleks - Part 2

The final episode of the shortest season of Doctor Who at this point and it’s the final story of the 22^nd season. I mentioned in the previous episode that the episode wasn’t as grim as I remembered. I still don’t think that this episode was as grim as I remember but there are some moments that do stand out as memorable. The cliffhanger from the previous episode has some good things about it but I think that its instantly forgotten just moments are the episode starts.

Jobel begins his interest in Peri and his dislike of the Doctor from the very beginning. Jobel’s time in this episode is rather entertaining. He walks around the place with arrogance. The attitude he has aimed at Tasambeker leads to her killing him and its hard to muster any sympathy for him. There is a little bit more sympathy when she is exterminated by the Daleks. On the subject of Jobel’s death, it was another example of the violence in Doctor Who at this point and its one of the more valid points. There is a slight dark comedic moment in his final moment in the store when his toupee falls onto the floor.

There is a solid moment with Orcini and Bostock when they are on Necros and come across as Dalek. It ends with a spectacular explosion. They don’t seem to feature in the episode as much as I thought they did but when they are in then they are fantastic. Their next big scene is when they encounter Davros but things start to go downhill for them and Bostock is the first to fall. Orcini’s death is far better because it’s a noble death and he dies with his friend next to him. William Gaunt has been a superb piece of casting.

I like how Davros sends some Daleks to ‘protect’ Kara and Vogel. It’s at this moment that it’s clear that they won’t have very much time left in this episode. Vogel’s death is rather amusing because it’s over the top. Kara’s death is slightly better but only because it comes at the end of a good scene where she meets up with Orcini and he stabs her. It’s hard to find sadness in her death because whilst she might have started out with good intentions, the fact that she was more looking out for herself sort of removes any sympathy that the viewer should have.

The DJ in this episode is less annoying and becomes a more likeable person. The first scene with him and Peri is a rather sweet and lovely encounter. He is willing to fight against the Daleks that is good for the viewer to see but I think that he was a bit rubbish in the seconds leading to his death. He deserved slightly better. The casting of Alexi Sayle might have been part of a long running problem that hung around this period of the show but I thought that Sayle managed to that this was more than a one dimensional character.

I had forgotten about the moment where the Doctor first encounters the Daleks in this story. It’s good to have this brief encounter and if there was one thing I would change about this story then it would be to have more time between Colin Baker and Terry Molloy. Terry Molloy’s performance wasn’t mentioned in the previous entry but he has really performed well in this serial. He is just a head for most of this serial and yet he manages to be one of the best things in this serial. Davros is very good in this episode and I like the twist when it appears that Orcini and Bostock have killed Davros. Davros does something that hadn’t been seen on screen before and that is he floats in the air. It’s often mentioned that the Daleks floating in Remembrance of the Daleks is the first time they are seen in the air but Davros beat them by three years.

It seems like I have had to wait for ages to see the Doctor meet Davros. There is a nice bit of continuity link back to Resurrection of the Daleks. Another memorable moment for Davros apart from the levitating bit is when his hand is blown off. The next time we see his hand is in metal form in the new series. Davros is basically led out to survive and fight another day. This seems like a plausible way of keeping the option open of using the character in another story.

There are a new breed of Daleks that have the more traditional colour scheme. The white and gold ones that are associated with Davros are the better looking ones and thankfully they return in the next story. Compared to the Davros aligned ones, the Daleks that are associated with the Supreme Dalek look rather bland in comparison.

The final scene is quite sad because I know what’s coming up. The Doctor talks about taking Peri on holiday is about to take her to Blackpool but due to the show being cancelled before being renewed, that is edited out so that we would have to wait until 2009 before Big Finish would take us to Blackpool. It’s a shame that the show was put on hiatus at this time because it seems like the show was still firing on all cylinders. Apart from Timelash, I thought this had been one of the strongest and most consistent season for quite some time. It would be 525 days before the show would return but it wouldn’t have the soul that it had before. This would be the last great story that Colin Baker would have but one thing is for sure the next fourteen days are going to be a mixture of emotions but one of major change.

(638) Revelation of the Daleks - Part 1

Revelation of the Daleks is a story that I have waited for and it arguably the last great Sixth Doctor story. This is the final story of the 22^nd season and the final story to air as a 45 minute episode until the show returned in 2005. It is also an Eric Saward story so you can expect a darker Doctor Who story than normal. It is also a story directed by Graeme Harper which means that the story will move in an interesting way. It seems that the Doctor and Peri’s relationship is as frosty as the lake the TARDIS lands by. The fact there is a lot of snow adds something to the story which is an added bonus.

Clive Swift appears as Jobel. He is quite an arrogant individual and is instantly unlikeable but that makes his likeable. He treats everyone around with contempt and that includes Tasambeker. Tasambeker is someone who has a bit of a crush on Jobel. Tasambeker is played by Jenny Tomasin  and she might be small but she almost stands over some of the other performers. Tasambeker comes to the attention of Davros which isn’t always a good thing.

Alexi Sayle appears as a DJ and adds a bit of anarchy to proceedings. He seems to be in own little world talking to those who are in suspended animation. He in fact doesn’t interact with anyone which is quite similar to Arak and Etta in Vengeance on Varos. Sayle’s performance is quite entertaining but it’s more fun trying to listen to the music playing in the background and guessing what the tracks are.  

It takes just eight minutes for Davros and the Daleks to make a return and this is a wonderful change of form because normally they wouldn’t appear until the half way point or even later. Here, Eric Saward doesn’t waste anytime. What he does do however is delay when the Doctor realises that the Daleks and Davros are on Necros with the name ‘The Great Healer’.

The Doctor and Peri spend an awfully long time just walking around. I suppose this allows for the other aspects of the story to take centre stage. The only person they come into contact with is someone who is quite deformed due to the Great Healer’s experiment. It almost seems like they are being kept separate from the main action. They are there for the cliffhanger however when a statue of the Doctor falls over and seems to crush the Doctor. The cliffhanger is different because it’s a white statue that falls to the camera and then the screen goes white before the credits roll.

There are several different plot strands that take place in this episode . The first involved Kara and Vogel. Kara (Eleanor Bron) and Hugh Walters (Vogel) run a factory that is basically a plaything for Davros. They dislike Davros but are nice as pie to his face. They are arranging for Orcini and Bostock to kill him. The first scene between Kara and Orcini is a great one because Kara is gushing about him but Orcini is less enthusiastic and acts like a nice guy because he gives his fee to charity. William Gaunt is brilliant as Orcini and the character is great because Gaunt makes us believe that he is a gun for hire and is a man with morals and a code.

Natasha and Grigory appear at first to be two body snatchers which is a wonderfully dark idea to have in a Doctor Who adventure. They are looking for Natasha’s father and it doesn’t take long to find him. He is in a glass Dalek casing and its in a dark room that has a faint red glow. The image of a glass Dalek casing is wonderful and the make-up used for Natasha’s father is quite gruesome. He wants her to kill him which is a quick and surprisingly emotional moment.

This episode didn’t strike me as grim or dark as I remembered. I do think that this might change in the next episode but the episode wasn’t slow and had enough going on to maintain my interest. It shouldn’t be a surprise considering how good Eric Saward’s last credited effort Earthshock was. Graeme Harper also deserves credit for directing this episode with the passion that it needed to. No story will ever be as well directed as The Caves of Androzani but Harper has shown again how a story should be directed. I look forward to the season finale.

(622) The Caves of Androzani - Part 4

Wow, this has come round fast. The 69^th and final appearance of the Fifth Doctor and like the previous three episodes, this isn’t going to be a laugh a minute episode. The previous episode ended with the Doctor seemingly about to crash land but when the episode starts again it doesn’t quite have the impact that the cliffhanger suggested it might be. The Doctor spends the first part of his final episode being shot at. Obviously out of the Doctor and Peri, he is the one that gets the worst time but it’s not exactly a barrel of laughs for Peri. Her condition is getting worst and so as a result doesn’t do very much until the final few minutes of the episode. The Doctor has to get the Queen Bat’s milk himself in what we are told are rather dangerous conditions. Morgus’ interacting with Stotz is something that comes across as the desperate measure that it is. His power has come to an end when Timmin appears in Morgus’ chair. It’s a great moment and Barbara Kinghorn gets her time to shine. She does a terrible job of not looking like she’s enjoying it. This is when we get to see Morgus walking the tightrope without a safety net.

Jek’s mask is pulled off similar and both Chellak and Peri respond in a rather scared way. We don’t see it until the end which I thought was a good idea because its one of the few shocks that the story has left. Chellak’s death is quite surprising because it comes out of nowhere and its quite creative given that this was a studio scene. Martin Cochrane has grown in the role over the course of the story. Stotz shooting Krepler and the other guy he’s with is very violent for Doctor Who and shows that this episode is going to have a high body count. The violent deaths were still to come. The encounter between Morgus and Jek is perhaps what we have been waiting for because they have been at war in this story. Jek, Stotz and Morgus all die within a minute of each other thus continue the rather alarming violence in this story.

The Doctor carries Peri and immediately drops her just by the TARDIS doors. There is a great rush in the final few minutes of this episode. There is no cheery goodbye from the Doctor but just a quick goodbye. “Is this death?” is one of the Doctor’s final lines and it’s a great one. The whole regeneration sequence is as sad as it should be. The Doctor gives his life basically for Peri and it shows how nice the Doctor is. The appearance of several of this Doctor’s companions is a nice touch. The appearance of the Master does seem to mirror what the Fourth Doctor saw in his final scenes.

Colin Baker’s first appearance as the Doctor ends with his looking straight at the camera and the tone in why he delivers his line about change is perhaps a big indicator about how the show is going to change. I wonder how many people watching in 1984 would have wondered what Maxil was doing away from Gallifrey.

This story has been the perfect way to end the Davison era. It’s been pretty much flawless and shows that even in the 1980’s Doctor Who was capable of being fresh and as final Doctor stories, this ahs to be one of the best. It will be the best story that Graeme Harper directs and it’s the best story for Robert Holmes as a writer. This episode did what it needed to do and it did it very well.

What can I say about the Peter Davison era? I think that its been pretty much as I thought and that it was always going to be difficult for someone to replace Tom Baker and Davison did as good as a job as he could. Some stories were good, some were bad and then there were three stories in particular that show the good times during the Davison era. Kinda, Earthshock and this story. There is something quite sad about departing the Davison era but there is something exciting about embarking on the Colin Baker era. What is slightly weird is that this isn’t the final story of the season. Colin Baker’s debut story will be the finale of the season but more of that tomorrow.

(621) The Caves of Androzani - Part 3

The penultimate episode of the Davison era and the reprise is the dragon like creature approaching the Doctor which is the second one that puts the Doctor in peril. Admittadley it wasn’t the biggest peril that the Doctor has ever faced but it served a purpose and it was put to one side quickly enough. The Doctor and Jek have a good scene in the early stages of this episode when Jek wants to know where Peri is and the Doctor’s being flippant. It’s fun seeing the Doctor being somewhat flippant because there have been few times during Davison’s time that he’s been able to be humorous but there have been several moments in this episode where he gets to do that.

Despite this, the Doctor’s time in this episode isn’t particularly good because Krepler and Stotz. He spends a bit of time chained up and has to put himself through some discomfort to get free. Peri’s bad time also continues as she is back in the arms of Jek and his obsession with her. If I were her then I would have insisted on being sent back to earth at the first possible moment. To be fair these three episodes have been superb for Nicola Bryant as she has shown what she can do with the character.

The death of the President by the hands of Morgus is quite a surprising thing but it shows that Morgus is a totally loathsome individual. He is very untrusting of pretty much everybody. Even though the shot of the President falling looks a bit dodgy but that doesn’t bother me really because the whole scene is fantastic. John Normington comes very close to stealing this entire story.

Graeme Harper continues to impress with his directing as there are a couple more moments which do seem like they have been pinched from other TV shows as we don’t get to see a Doctor Who story. It’s kind of frustrating that we will go back to how things usually are in the next story. This story isn’t just great because of the director but also because of the writing. Robert Holmes really has upped his game.

The episode ends with the Doctor seemingly about to die with the ship he’s on. Another situation where the Doctor’s life is in peril. This has to be the best of the cliffhangers because it’s the closest that the story has come to getting the Doctor into his regeneration. This was a strong episode but for some reason it didn’t quite have the pace that the previous episodes have had. I am really looking forward to the final Peter Davison episode.

(620) The Caves of Androzani - Part 2

I forgot to mention that yesterdays episode got an 8.00 rating which is the first time that a Peter Davison episode has got into the 8’s and also only the 8^th episode ever to get inside the 8’s. The previous episode ended with the Doctor and Peri being shot but things are not quite what they seem. They were in fact robots but it takes about three minutes for this fact to be revealed. It’s done when the Doctor and Peri encounter Sharaz Jek. Jek seems to have developed quite the crush on Peri although it turns a bit sour when she asks why he wears a mask and he reacts rather aggressively. The description of how he became disfigured is quite grim and its nice to get a bit of an understanding of his back story.

Once Chellak realises that he has shot androids, he thinks more about his reputation and this is where Salateen starts to make sense when he is whispering in Chellak’s ear. Salateen’s reaction when he discovers that Peri and the Doctor have spectrox poisoning is rather good. After not being one of the main characters in the previous episode, it seems like Salateen takes a step forward and becomes quite the chatterbox. He reveals that there is only one way to counteract the spectrox and its very difficult (what would you expect?) to get to. It’s nice that a small seemingly unimportant scene in the previous episode seems to be snowballing into something.

Despite being behind a mask it is quite impressive how Christopher Gable is able to comes across as well as he does. It’s very similar to Magnus Grel in The Talons of Weng-Chiang in that it’s a performance that is more audio than visual. It’s the sort of role that Big Finish could have done well with.

There is a bit where Stotz plans what appears to be a suicide pill in Krelper’s mouth that turns out to be a sweet. This is another grim moment in this serial. Grim is the most common word that will appear in the review for these four episodes but it’s the only word that I can use to describe some of the moments and compared to other stories in this series it is a just word.

Graeme Harper is doing a great job of directing there are a couple of fade overs from one face to another to another. There are other good shots and some nice hand held camera work. The lighting continues to work in the favour of this story and Robert Holmes’ script continues to be a reason why this story is one of the most loved stories in the shows history.

The cliffhanger isn’t perhaps as strong as the previous one but that is hardly a surprise. It is perhaps the only thing that was weak about this episode. It’s still been a cracking episode and its nice when I struggle to come up with things that are wrong with an episode. In recent episodes I have struggled to find positives about but its nice for it to be the other way around.

(619) The Caves of Androzani - Part 1

The Caves of Androzani is one of those stories that has everything right go for it. Some people regard it as one of the best stories of Doctor Who ever and its not hard to see why. I think that there are some better stories but this is probably one of the best Davison stories. This is the 20^th and final story of Peter Davison’s tenure. It’s fair to say that the current season has been a rather mixed batch with some great stories and yet some terrible stories. Thankfully Davisnon’s era ends on a high note. The opening scene is rather grim and sets the tone for the episode.

Peri becomes entangled in some sort of web fungus which isn’t treated with any importance but becomes vital later on. The Doctor and Peri don’t have the best time in this episode because they are accused of doing something they didn’t do and the cliffhanger is them being shot by a firing squad with red cloths over their heads. The purpose of the celery that has been part of the fifth Doctor’s costume is finally explained and it was never going to be a fantastic explanation but at least an effort has ben made.

The set designs are of the same quality as those seen in Earthshock. It shows how badly wrong they got sets like Four to Doomsday and Warriors of the Deep.

John Normington is brilliant as Morgus. He does a lot of looking at the camera which is something that had never been seen in the show before. Beside that every time he is on screen he just goes for it. The character isn’t the president but acts like it. He is a very unlikeable character yet there is something to like about him. Barbara Kinghorn is the only other female performer in the story apart from Nicola Bryant and she is also works brilliantly. She is a rather on the sidelines in this episode yet she there is still a bit of magic in her performance.

Martin Cochrane plays Chellak and his role is rather standard. That might sound like a critiscm but in a weird way by being standard he manages to come across as someone that still manages to hold his own in the scenes that he was in. Christopher Gable plays the great character Sharaz Jek but thanks to Graeme Harper’s superb directing, we don’t see him properly until the end when he turns to the camera and laughs just as the Doctor and Peri are about to be executed. Jek is mentioned a lot in the episode and so he becomes this mystifcal figure even though he doesn’t actually do anything.

Graeme Harper directs his first episode of Doctor Who brilliantly. Pretty much every second on screen is superbly set up. Somethings that have never been seen in the show before showed what could be achieved in the show. Robert Holmes is an old hand at writing Doctor Who stories and he hasn’t lost any of his magic. In fact this might be his best story ever because he has written a strong story with strong characters and this opening episode pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the serial. Peter Davison’s final story isn’t going to be a joy finale but what it looks like its going to be is a classic classic.