(753) Planet of the Dead

Officially this is the 200^th story in Doctor Who but due to the way that I have worked things out this is in fact the 202^nd. This is the first of three episodes to be broadcast in 2009 due to Tennant wanting to do other stuff and the BBC desperate to keep him happy. This is what I class as the first of the specials because The Next Doctor is more attached to the 30^th series. The buzz around this episode was that the show filmed in the United Arab Emirates and a double-decker bus that was used for this story was damaged quite badly. Cleverly though RTD used this to his advantaged and worked it into the story. This is the first story that lays the groundwork to the departure of David Tennant’s Doctor. Having become use to Christmas Specials, it was somewhat of a treat to have a special that aired over the Easter weekend.

This special sees Michelle Ryan play Lady Christina de Souza who is the guest companion and starts the episode by pulling off quite the heist. She’s not a very good robber cause the police have pretty much caught her before she boards the 200 bus. To be honest I don’t think that she is that good really. I thought that she was cast purely cause of her looks and sadly I think that her past as a soap star might be something that works against her. When her character is sort of seen as a good character I still don’t care.

UAE doubles for San Helios and filming it here helps make it feel like an alien world instead of loads of sand being dumped in a Welsh studio. In one sense, this is the only thing that makes this story memorable. The interior of the bus scenes are filmed in a studio but it still looks good enough.

The Bus Driver who allowed Christina to board the bus by paying with her diamond earrings was the first to die by walking through the barrier. To be honest he would have become an annoyance had he lasted much longer. The rest of the bus passengers aren’t that good because they are all quite unlikely or believable. When they are back home I still found myself not being that bothered with them. Carmen (Ellen Thomas) is the only interesting character of the supporting characters. She is the one that can hear voices and guess how many fingers the Doctor has behind his back. Her most significant moment comes when she tells the Doctor that he will knock four times.

This episode sees UNIT return but sadly its more of an amusing UNIT. Lee Evans guest stars as Malcolm who has managed to name a measure of time after himself. I don’t really understand why UNIT are even in this story cause they don’t really add anything to the story.

If Jamie were in Doctor Who now then he would describe the monsters as timerous beasties and they are able to create wormholes by flying in formation. I think that this is a really good idea and infact their design is a good idea which bearing in mind that RTD is clearly on the wind down it makes the idea more impressive. The sight of a London Double Decker bus flying is a barmy yet great image to see in Doctor Who.

This has been a bit of a disappointing Doctor Who story. There have been some interesting things that have happened in this story but for some reason I just found myself watching it and not really enjoying it. Since I finished watching Journeys End I have found myself not enjoying the show as much. I wonder whether its because I know that the Tennant era is coming to an end or whether its just that everything was thrown into that two parter that it seems like the show is running on empty and just keeping things ticking over until Steven Moffat and Matt Smith take over.

(739) Partners in Crime

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(738) Voyage of the Damned

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(729) Evolution of the Daleks

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

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

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

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

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

(728) Daleks in Manhattan

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

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

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

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

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

(719) The Satan Pit

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

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

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

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

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

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

(718) The Impossible Planet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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