(756) The End of Time - Part Two

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(751) Journeys End

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(750) The Stolen Earth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(737) Last of the Timelords

I am surprised at how quickly this twenty-ninth series has gone. Whereas the previous series seemed to drag at times, this series has been a huge improvement.

The Master’s little dance bit isn’t something that we would have seen Anthony Ainley do or Roger Delgado doing that. I think that it’s something that make the Master seem more made crazier. I hadn’t realised how good John Simm is in this episode. When he’s on screen I am enjoying the episode and when he isn’t on screen then I find myself wishing he was on screen. The thing about this Master is that his plan is like his plans of old. It’s so convoluted that its almost boring but unlike his plans of old, it doesn’t get stopped at the last minute by the Master.

The encounter that the Doctor the Master have on Earth is a short, snappy but very impressive bit and to be honest all the scenes between the two of them are very good.

I thought that the Master being shot was a bit of a mistake. It would have been good if he had managed to escape like he always did. The Master refusing to regenerate (didn’t know it was an option) seems to indicate a very firm end to his character although there is always the potential for a get out clause when a mysterious hand picks up the Master’s ring.

The make up to make Tennant look old works quite well at first. It’s not quite as good as the make up he had in The Family of Blood buts it’s still good. However when the Doctor is made even older then the effect looks very poor. He looks like he has come from one of the Harry Potter films.

One of the episodes successes is that it manages to show the destruction of the world by people talking about how countries have fallen.

One of the biggest clunkers in Doctor Who history is when Captain Jack seems to insist that he is the Face of Boe. It just doesn’t work and is a little bit silly. Even back in 2007 I thought that it was a bit of a misstep.

Martha does a lot of driving the narrative in this episode. She is the one that has been on the journey around the world and has played an interesting game of double bluff because we were made to believe that she has spent the last year looking for bits of a gun. Her speech about the Doctor is a nice one because it basically tells people that the Doctor is the hero, not her. It’s weird to think that for most of the episode, the Doctor and Martha don’t meet. It’s not until the end that they are in the same scene together. It’s frustrating that Freema Agyeman leaves at the end of this episode because she has been a breath of fresh air after the rather staleness of Billie Piper.

The goodbye scene between the Doctor and Martha was really well done. It was an exit that made sense and worked and is one of the stronger exits for a companion.

Like Doomsday, this episode has a cliffhanger for the Christmas Special and this time it’s more epic. The Titanic somehow manages to crash into the TARDIS leading to a WHAT from Tennant like he did in Doomsday. This has been a better episode than I thought. In my mind I had previously thought there was far more sentimental nonsense but actually it was all in proportion. The story with the Master ended at the right time and the departures of both Captain Jack and Martha were given the right amount of time.

Last of the Timelords is a good end to the season which has been consistently strong. I think that the next series (and Christmas special) is where the Tennant era goes downhill a bit. But maybe things might be different.

(736) The Sound of Drums

The sound of Drums is the penultimate episode of the series. The pre-title scene is very good because it basically sets everything up in just a couple of minutes. The Master has called himself Harold Saxon and has become Prime Minister. His first proper scene with his cabinet is very god and shows a wonderful example of how borderline mad he is. That scene is memorable because he gases everyone and the camera moves in towards him as he is tapping the glass four times. 

The first conversation between the Doctor and the Master is the best thing of the episode. It is what people had been waiting for and it came at just he right time. An ex platoon is given about what happened to the Master and how he got out of the predicament that he was in during the TV Movie. He hid from the Daleks during the Time War which essentially shows him to be a coward or it could be seen as a typical fight for survival. John Simm is very good and manages to play the Master.

Lucy Saxon is an interesting addition to the story because it's clear that the Master doesn't really care about her but is just using her. I thought her best scene was when was talking to the reporter. The reporter has worked out that Harold isn't the man he claims to be and seems to be about to spill the beans before going back to normal and revealing that Saxon is lurking in the room.

Sharon Osbourne, Busted and Ann Widicombe all make cameo appearances in what has become a regular tradition. I can't say that this bothered me because it was quick and was relevant to the story (sort of).

The Toclafane are a new creation. They are a interesting creation although they don't serve a purpose outside of his story. It would be wrong of me not to mention the scene with the Teletubbies. It is a lovely nod to the 1972 story The Sea Devils where the Master is watching the Clangers. It is a scene that I have been looking forward to since I saw the Clangers scene because it was clearly written as a nod to that story. 

Martha is quite different in this episode because her family are in danger. She isn't the fun and nice person that she has been for the previous eleven episodes but becomes rather nasty to the Doctor although it's not easy to blame her. It could be argued that her parents and sister being locked up by the Master is Francine’s fault. What was the point of getting Reggie Yates in the episode? He makes one very brief appearance and then is never seen or heard from again. I think that his casting has been one of the biggest mistakes since the show returned in 2005.

The scene where the Doctor talks about Gallifrey and its the first time that we see Gallifrey in the new series and some backstory about the Master. Basically the Master went mad at the age of 8. It does a nice job of explaining what happens to kids on Gallifrey.

The U.S. President appears in this episode (not the real one I should add!!!). This is the first time since Abraham Lincoln in The Chase that a U.S President has featured in Doctor Who. There is a nice bit of tension between Winters and Saxon. There are nice digs about the invasion of Iraq where it was clear that the U.S. we're calling the shots.

The Master has used the Doctor’s TARDIS as a paradox machine. Seeing the TARDIS in that red glow is fantastic and it's good that it's being used in this way because normally it's just a prop to get the regulars from place A to Z.

The addition of the song when the Paradox machine starts is quite a mixed thing cause at the time I liked it cause it seemed new but now it doesn't seem to work as well. From the moment that the President is killed the episode really starts to ramp up towards the cliffhanger. Things look bleak for the regulars cause the Doctor is an old man (more about the make up tomorrow) and Martha is fleeing into the distance. I thought that this ending was really good.  It was a very good episode and continues the good trend and I am really looking forward to the final episode of the series.

(709) The Parting of the Ways

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(708) Bad Wolf

It was perhaps inevitable that when I was watching this season that it was going to be over too quickly and as a result the Eccleston era would be over too quickly. There is a nice reprise from what happened in the god awful The Long Game. When the reprise is over there is a mad opening with the Doctor entering the Big Brother house with the theme tune and Davina McCall being a voice on Channel 44000. The Doctor is on Big Brother and Rose is on The Weakest Link with the Anne Droid (nice gag) and it’s the most interesting game of The Weakest Link ever. Whilst Captain Jack is with the robotic versions of Trinny and Susannah who at the time were famous for What Not To Wear (I had to look that up). When he is naked and says to them that their viewing figures just went up it made me wonder whether I was watching a Carry On sketch. I found this part of the episode to be rather boring. The actions on the Big Brother and Weakest Link sets are the more interesting.

Back in 2005 all the shows and personalities that appear in this story all seemed current but in 2015 apart from Big Brother (which has now moved channels) and Anne Robinson still on TV. Anyone watching the show now would wonder who on earth these people are. Anne Robinson is on TV although she is starting to look more like Cassandra from The End of the World and Davina McCall appears on The Million Pound Drop and some random ITV show but neither of them are now appearing on the show they were appearing on in 2005. As for Trinny and Susannah, I haven’t the foggiest what they are doing.

Torchwood gets its first mention in this episode.

This episode is called Bad Wolf and this is where Bad Wolf gets explained because of the countless references in the series. Ten years on and I still don’t understand what Bad Wolf is. People have tried to explain it to me but I still don’t get. The events of The Long Game have caused everything that we see in Bad Wolf. On this occasion, the Doctor has made things much worse than normal. The set used in The Long Game is the same one in this story and it’s a clever way of saving some money cause there is very little redressing required. The title of that episode is also used when describing what the people running the Bad Wolf Corporation have been doing. Russell T Davies might have some flaws but at this time of the show he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

The Weakest Link bit was quite fun as it led to Rose (for a short time) being killed. The build-up in the final round between her and Rodrick is very dramatic. Something struck me and that is it doesn’t seem like the Anne Droid has much of manoeuvring and Rose could have ducked behind her platform and she would have been safe. It takes a while for Captain Jack to reveal that Rose is in fact alive. When Rose makes her appearance she isn’t quite to keen to befriend them. Rose has been left out of the action in this episode which makes a change really and a refreshing one because it means that the Doctor and Captain Jack can work as a team without Rose trying to flirt with him. Speaking of flirting, the Doctor has to tell Jack not to flirt with anyone who talks to him with the word hello being flirting by Jack standards.

When the story moves to Floor 500 we meet the controller who is a Dalek slave but until the very end of the episode it’s not clear that she’s a Dalek slave. For most of the episode she seems to be just a poor sole but she doesn’t have long in the episode as she’s exterminated in ruthless fashion. I found the two people that were keeping an eye on the TV shows to be rather bland and boring and a bit stupid really but they aren’t that important to the grand scheme of things so it doesn’t bother me too much.

The Dalek ships revelation that appears at the end of the episode is a fantastic sight as is the bigger number of Daleks that appear. This is where some of the siphoned money from Boom Town ended up and it was worth every penny. In Dalek there was just the one Dalek and so it’s nice to see more.

The defiant speech that the Doctor gives is a wonderful speech and another reason why Christopher Eccleston is such a good Doctor.  This was a an episode that managed to let Eccleston to have some comedy moments let do the serious stuff that he managed to show us his serious side.

Sadly this two parter suffers the same problem that Aliens of London and that is it has its cliffhanger before the credits roll. This is a shame because the whole episode has been a nice slow burner. On a more positive note, it didn’t ruin the story quite like Aliens of London did. Most people knew when it aired that this was his final story so they try and play with that by filling the trailer with other stuff and seeing if the viewer can spot if there are any clues about his exit. It has been a good set up episode with enough to keep my attention until the cliffhanger. I just hope that the next episode manages to give me the send off I think that Eccleston deserves. I think he does but as JNT said “The Memory Cheats”.

(707) Boom Town

Russell T Davies made a critical and important decision. He realised that a good portion of the budget for the show should be spent on the final two episodes and so sacrificed any special effects money from a single episode and sent it to the series finale. So this is the cheap episode. I use the term cheap loosely because no episode of Doctor Who is cheap and an argument could be made that there were less visual effects in the previous two parter but that’s for another blog.

There is a reminder of what happened in Aliens of London and World War Three which leads us into a nice pre-title scene showing that Annette Badland’s Slitheen somehow survived the blast on Downing Street. With this being a ‘cheap’ episode it means that it’s more of a character piece. What makes it different is that the character in question is the Slitheen. She starts the episode by killing someone and then just as she’s about to kill a nosey journalist she has a change of heart.

The Doctor plans to take Margaret Slitheen back home but she is going to be executed when she gets back and so it then becomes a question as to whether the Doctor can basically send someone to their death and it tests the Doctor’s morality. There is a great scene with all of them in the TARDIS about who is actually the monster and there is a great stare down between Margaret and the regulars and Margaret wins each time. When Margaret and the Doctor go out for a meal it’s a wonderfully tense part of the episode because Margaret thinks that just because she let one person live that means she is able to change. It’s a great performance from Badland and it’s a shame that she didn’t get more of the screen time in the Slitheen two-parter because she really is a very good actress and she more than holds her own against Christopher Eccleston.

Mickey joins the team which is making this seem like the Scooby gang. Mickey does seem to be more of a comedic Mickey. The relationship between Mickey and Rose is still boring and when they were having there scene by the bay I just wanted to be back with the Doctor and Margaret. I was so fed up with it they made ME hate Trisha Delaney. Mickey moans that Rose will always pick the Doctor over him and to be honest, with the amount of whinging he does, it’s not hard to see why she would make that decision. It’s a shame that Noel Clarke seems to have been reduced to this because he deserves better.

There is a lovely amount of comedy and there are too many to mention but for some reason the comedy works to the stories advantage and its one of the things that I like about it. However when it needs to stop, when things a bit bombastic then the comedy makes way for the drama and  the shift in tone happens in quite a seamless way.

Margaret is defeated by looking into the heart of the TARDIS and going back to being an egg and she gets have a second chance at life which is quite a clever way to get the Doctor out of a particular problem because he doesn’t let Margaret go and he doesn’t take her to her death and so the episode is ended in a satisfactory way. It’s been a fun episode an a largely unappreciated episode of the new series that lives within the constricts that has been imposed by the executive producer and writer of this very episode rather well. Now the finale has arrived and this is when things start to get ramped up and more importantly the beginning of the end of the Eccleston era.

(706) The Doctor Dances

Before I start todays review I just wanted to say something that I hadn’t spoken of in yesterday’s episode. The cliffhanger was really good and a better one than in Aliens of London. The people in the hospital walking towards the Doctor, Jack and Rose mirrors what’s happening to Nancy back at the house.  They solved the problem of the NEXT TIME trailer in a two parter. They held it over to after the credits finished which is now the norm. Being so bothered by the Jack/Rose romance that was beginning. I hadn’t commented on what the point of Jack was in the story and he is basically a con man thinking that the Doctor and Rose were going to make him an offer. He basically is the one that caused the problems that are happening in this story.

I remember that there seemed to be a bit of annoyance when the title for this episode was revealed. I think that people imagine that it was going to be a Doctor Who version of Strictly Come Dancing which was clearly never going to be the case. RTD might be mad but even he would do that sort of stunt in the tenth episode of the reboot. The cliffhanger being done in the pre-title scene is something that I like about the new series and the Doctor manages to save the day by just acting like a parent and telling them to ‘go to their room’.

Unlike World War Three, this episode actually delivers on what was set up in the previous episode. The spookiness continues in this episode. I love the scene where they are in Room 802 with the drawings and all the carnage. It’s the sort of room that appears in the found footage films which take place in abandoned hospitals. It’s lit perfectly and James Hawes keeps the shots tight to hide the arrival of the boy in the gasmask. The bit where the tape ran out and yet the boy still talks and the typewriter still typing when the kid isn’t sitting next to it are two great moments.

I like how the Doctor is annoyed at Jack because of what he was doing. It’s a nice contrast with the love in from Jack and Rose. There was a bit more innocence in the previous episode. Due to the change, there is less stuff to find annoying in this episode about Jack and so it doesn’t bother me so much that he becomes part of the TARDIS crew. There is a shot of the three of them coming towards the camera and to me it works and this is the moment that I think they work as a trio. The scene where Jack joins the TARDIS crew is a good one and one that I didn’t think I would like when I started watching the two episodes.

Billie Piper isn’t as annoying as she has been for several episodes. Her best scene comes when Rose is talking to Nancy about the future of the country. Nancy’s truth is revealed at one of the tenser moments of the episode. In the previous episode we learn that the boy was Nancy’s brother but in fact he is her son. I like how Nancy hugging her son is what saves the day and for the first time means that there weren’t any deaths in a Doctor Who story.

The nanobots from the previous episode actually have a purpose and that is they are the one that caused the gasmask on everyones faces. Ok I would really liked to have blamed Captain Jack but on this occasion it was the nanobots. They think that the boy is how all humans should look like and be like and that is why everyone else is walking around saying mummy. It’s a great idea from Moffat and as a result this two part story is one of the strongest of the series.

After a rough couple of episodes, it feels like the show is back on track with a story that didn’t wallow in family back story and despite my mis-givings about the romance between Rose and Jack in the previous episode I think that this adventure is one of the strongest stories so far.

(705) The Empty Child

At the moment I am ready the novel Illegal Aliens which was written by Mike Tucker & Robert Perry which oddly enough was going to form part of the 1990 series had that been made. That story takes place in November 1940 which is just before the events of todays episode. I liked watching todays episode thinking that the seventh Doctor had been walking around the streets of the same city just a short time before. This is the second two parter story and in my opinion the strongest of the three that occur during this series. The story was written by future showrunner Steven Moffat (at a time when people liked him). The Rose problem is still on show in today’s episode. Not only is she wearing a Union Jack top but is obsessed with the Doctor using some ‘alien tech’ and wanting to do a bit of Spock stuff which makes me wonder if she wishes she were in Star Trek.

There are some lovely visuals in this episode. The first is when Rose is hanging from a barrage balloon just as planes are about to come towards her when bombs are falling towards the ground. The effect of Doctor Constantine’s transformation towards the end of the episode is a fantasticly gruesome one and one that I thought at the time would get the show into trouble but it still looks fantastic.

John Barrowman’s first scene is an odd one. He is basically perving over Billie Piper’s bottom (which most would say isn’t a bad thing). But it’s not the greatest of starts for the future Face of Boe. He spends his first episode pretty much flirting with Rose which just gets in the way of the story. If it weren’t for this flirting then I wouldn’t have found him so annoying.

If there is one thing that Moffat can do really well then its spooky drama. The idea of a small boy with a gas mask just saying “Are You My Mommy?” is something that could only have come from the mind of Moffat. The scene where Nancy and the Doctor are inside the house and the boy in the gas mask is outside. It’s a very enjoyable scene and shows how you can have a great moment in the show without CGI or any special effects.

Something else he has done well in this episode is the creation of Nancy and the young kids that she ‘mothers’. Despite the horrible settings they found themselves in there is something nice about the family that she seems to find herself being the mother of. Her story is very sad but I think that Florence Hoath works well with Christopher Eccleston. The whole Doctor/Nancy relationship works much better than the Doctor/Rose relationship has been recently. At the moment I wish that Rose would be left in 1941 and Nancy would go travelling with the Doctor. The idea of someone from the Second World War travelling in time and space is a great one. Nancy lost her brother during one of the airraids and he died.

Richard Wilson guest stars in these two episodes and whilst he is more known to me (and most people) for playing Victor Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990-2000). He is great in the scene he is in before he gets a new gas mask as a face.

Steven Moffat has written a cracking set up episode. Despite the relationship between Rose and Captain Jack, I have found what he has written to be entertaining and its still easy to see why he would go on to be the showrunner in 2010. James Hawes deserves a lot of praise for making the whole episode look like it was actually filmed in 1941. The pacing is constant and I never found myself being bored (only when Rose and Jack were on screen). The omens are good for the next episode.

I’ve just read something about an interview that Christopher Eccleston did to promote some ITV drama (spits on the floor). In it he says that he would have done the comedy differently which to me is an odd thing to say because I actually think watching it this time that his comedy is actually pitched just right.