(701) World War Three

The NEXT TIME trailer at the end of the previous episode still bothers me because it basically tells people not to bother watching because you know that the Doctor is OK. The Doctor gets out of his predicament (which we knew he would because of the NEXT TIME trailer) before the titles play. I think that it’s a good way that he gets out of it because he saves himself and as a result saves Rose, Harriet Jones, Jackie and Mickey.

There is one scene between Green and General Asquith which is really strange because its not something that seems to belong in a Doctor Who story.  

Green: I need to be naked

General: Rejoice in it. Your body is magnificent!

The list of people rolling up to Downing Street is still amusing as there are some that make sense but Andrew Marr’s second appearance ends with him introducing Sylvia Dillane who is Chairman of the North Sea Boat Club. Russell T Davies sprinkles little jokes throughout the episode and the humour is well place which isn’t something that I would have expected to be writing about a Doctor Who episode.

The Doctor starts mentioning that he knows the name Harriet Jones. It’s not until the end that he reveals who she would go on to be. When I watched this back in 2005, I remember thinking that it would be good to have her back in the show against. The Doctor starts to appreciate Mickey. When he calls him Mickey the Idiot towards the end of the episode its almost done with affection. I think that the Ninth Doctor and Mickey have a rather frosty relationship even at its best but Mickey has a better relationship with the tenth Doctor.

The outside of 10 Downing Street does pass for the real thing until they do a long shot which shows that its not quite the real Downing Street which does slightly take me out of the story but at least they have tried to make it look like Downing Street instead of just filming it in just a studio.

Jackie has a go at the Doctor for thinking this is fun life for him and that he’s dragging her daughter into it and I like how later on he replies by saying that it’s not fun or glamorous. The Doctor has had a battering from Jackie in these two episodes but I think that by the end of the episode their relationship is ok, not perfect but better than it was at the beginning of the previous episode.

I forgot that the Doctor offers Mickey the chance to come on board the TARDIS. He turns the offer down but boards it in the next series. When the Doctor pretends he doesn’t want Mickey to come on board to spare Mickey’s blushes, Rose doesn’t put up much of a fight which I find surprising. It’s a scene that is the proper goodbye that Rose should have had in the first episode and its more memorable because of Christopher Eccleston and Noel Clarke who

The episode ends on a rather downbeat note with Rose walking out on her mother and boyfriend. Even the music is downbeat so its hard to feel anything positive when the credits start to roll. The first two parter of this new series isn’t the greatest. Even if I base it on its own merits instead of comparing it to other two parters it is still lacking something. There are things to like in these two episodes but it doesn’t quite have enough to be classed as an early classic. These two episodes as well as the opening episode have been directed by Keith Boak who hasn’t returned to the series since and on the basis of these two episodes its not hard to see why because they aren’t directed with particular pace or excitement. They are nuts and bolts episodes and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but it just doesn’t work in this two parter.

The next episode sees the return of the Daleks and whereas the previous NEXT TIME I didn’t like it, that isn’t the case for this trailer because it shows that the Daleks are back and in a different way to what we have seen in the past. Tomorrow cant come quick enough.

(700) Aliens of London

The thing about the new era of Doctor Who is that the stories are mostly single episodes with the exception being the occasional two parter. So with single episode stories being the norm, it means that the two parters pick up a new meaning and excitement. Today is the shows 700^th episode and the show has changed since the 600^th episode which was the first episode of The Kings Demons. Wow there is very little the same apart from the fact there is the Doctor and the TARDIS.

The Doctor takes Rose back to the council estate that she lives on thinking that it’s only been twelve hours since the events of the opening episode. The first few minutes with this idea is quite fun but the good news is broken when the Doctor realises that it’s been twelve months and not twelve hours and Jackie has a shocked look on her face. The Doctor is quite funny when he breaks this news to Jackie and Rose. The advantage of having 90 minutes is that there is time for a slower build up and it means that there is time for family domestics. Russell T Davies wanted the family dynamic thrown into the episode to be an anchor for Rose, giving her a reason to return to Earth.

The term companion sounds dirty in this episode when the Doctor announces to the police that he Rose is his companion and the policeman asks if it’s a sexual relationship. I think that this pretty much retires the term as well as assistant. Friend is the term I will be using from now on to describe future people who travel in the TARDIS.

This is another episode that shows the new series means business in terms of what we see on screen. The effect of the alien ship crashing into Big Ben is one of the most memorable ones from this season. The shot of the ship crashing into the Thames is also well done and I saw Doctor Who Confidential (remember that) and it showed how this was achieved and it’s a simple yet effective visual effect.

This episode sees Naoko Mori play Doctor Sato and it’s a character that she would play in the Torchwood spin-off. Again watching this back in 2005, there was no way anyone watching would have known that she would go on to be in the Torchwood spin off but it’s a good performance from her.

Joseph Green who has the job title of Minister on the Monitoring of Sugar Standards in exported confectionery which is the best job in politics (if it existed of course). This is a bit of RTD having some fun with less than minor details. Green becomes Prime Minister because of the un-named PM (supposed to be Tony Blair). I think that he is an effective baddie. The other Slitheens are all good as baddies but its Green that is the standout character. Penelope Wilton makes her first appearance as Harriet Jones. Wilton is a superb actress and she brings a nice warmth to the show and stumbles into the adventures. I think its funny that she introduces herself to everyone and holds her ID card. It just makes me like the character even more.

UNIT make their first appearance since Battlefield and I like how the Doctor stumbles into a room where they are all resting and waits for them to pick up their guns and point them at him. Moments later he acting in charge calling in the shots although he doesn’t know its UNIT. Despite the slow reaction time with the soldiers and the Doctor, UNIT don’t come across as the bumbling outfit that they use to come across. I think that I miss that.

There are a couple of cameo appearances. Firstly there is Andrew Marr who is currently appearing in his own political talk show on Sunday mornings on the BBC and Matt Baker who was in Blue Peter on this episode but now is the co-host of the One Show. This is the sort of stunt casting that I like as its relevant to the story and they are not too important to the story.

If there is something that has always troubled me about the Slitheen then it’s the breaking wind that regularly happens. It’s a fun idea that they are squeezing themselves inside human skins and the effect of then unzipping from their foreheads is one of the things I like about the Slitheen but it’s just the farting which seemed a bit childish.

The cliffhanger has a nice build-up of a few minutes where in three different areas, the Slitheen are finally revealed and it’s he right point for them to do this and the final shot is of the Doctor and the other members of UNIT being electrocuted. The NEXT TIME trailer is put in a rather stupid place because within seconds of the cliffhanger, the Doctor is shown to be perfectly fine and running around. I think that it was Steven Moffat that pointed this silliness. It’s a shame that this was done because it just takes out the immediate threat that they spent 45 minutes build up to. I think that this is an important lesson that RTD, Julie Gardner and Mal Young have learnt. This is more of a build-up episode because 45 minutes is spent setting up the characters and the setting. If this were the classic era then this would have two episodes into a four parter and in those stories it is in the third episode where the story starts to build up. There was a bit better pacing in this episode and as a result it seemed like a slightly stronger episode as a result.

(697) Rose

If I am being honest, then I am really excited that I have reached this part of the marathon. I am sad that I have left the classic era but there is something fun about watching episodes that I have watched within the last decade. In fact today’s episode aired 10 years and three weeks ago. The debut episode of the Russell T Davies era was one that I was as excited as I had ever been about Doctor Who. The trailers had aired on BBC TV and there had even been billboards that I had passed everyday going to and from work. There was even a bit of hullabaloo about the episode leaking online just days before it was transmitted but I was a good boy and didn’t take a sneak peak. I can also remember in those days being obsessed with any pictures taken of what was going on. One final thing I remember is that Graham Norton’s voice appeared during Rose’s first encounter with the Auton’s.

There is a lot to talk about so I might miss some of the things so let’s start from the beginning. The theme tune is fantastic and I think it’s one my favourites of the new era. It’s a rare instance of this episode being named after a companion and nowadays having no pre-title sequence. When the episode starts it is in space and zooms into Rose’s bedroom. The episode is designed to be seen from Rose’s point of view. The first couple of minutes are designed to show how dull her life is but it takes about five minutes for it to become interesting when she meets the Autons and then is saved by the Doctor. I think that Christopher Eccleston’s first appearance is good and in keeping with the new run style that modern day Who has adopted.

I like Christopher Eccleston’s performance. When you consider the shows he has worked on in the years before and after then its amazing that he wanted to play the role even its for its for just one series. What is impressive is that it comes across naturally and he does the comedy just as well as the serious stuff. There is a bit where Ecceleston is talking about the earth spinning and he says it in such a way which shows that his Doctor is just as good as those that have come before it. Ok let’s address the costume because it’s the first time in a long time that the costume hasn’t been the talking point of the Doctor. Not since the Tom Baker costume has a costume been less noticeable. Even ten years later it’s still a costume that looks good.

Another thing I should address is the new TARDIS console. It’s breath-taking and there is no other way of describing it. It takes 26 minutes for the TARDIS console room to appear and the first time Rose sees it is the first time we see and the camera moves around like we are in awe of what we have seen. The fact that its so big means that its possible to film scenes in the TARDIS from whatever angle possible. It’s so good now that when you walk through the TARDIS doors that you go straight through to the console room and the doors match. That was a major consistency problem during the classic era where the doors inside the TARDIS console room are huge and yet the outside the doors are tiny.  It’s also nice now that when we are outside

This episode marks the first appearance of the Auton’s since 1971’s Terror of the Autons. It’s quite a good choice of RTD’s to use the Autons because they are a good enough villain that long-time fans will appreciate and mannequins are something that new fans can see the potential for menace. The Autons breaking through the shop windows is something that they wanted to do in Spearhead from Space but were unable to do for budgetary reasons. Now we get to see what it would have looked like and it didn’t disappoint. It’s rather odd and cool to see the child Autons walking around and also Autons in wedding dresses. It perhaps isn’t the greatest use of the Autons in this story but they served a purpose and it would be nice to see them back in Doctor Who again.

The scene with the Doctor and Rose walking is quite good because it establishes them as friends. I like how Rose is willing to go along with what the Doctor tells her. Although it’s a friendship that hasn’t quite formed. This is highlighted in the scene by the London eye where Rose is rather miffed that the Doctor doesn’t seem bothered about Mickey. Rose asks the Doctor why he sounds like he from the north and the Doctor reply’s with that plenty of planets have a north. I thought that this was a fun line.

Some of the dialogue that appears in this episode is rather more grown up compared to what would have been said in the classic era. The use of the term breast implants and Shunt off seems rather brave to stick in a drama that appears at 7pm on a Saturday night.

The London Eye is an iconic part of London and is used in this episode as part of the story. It’s not the first time that a part of London will be used in a Doctor Who adventure but I think its quite clever. The location filming of the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament are lovely and it’s a bonus of the new series that the cameras used have improved in quality enough for things to look this good. Even though some of the scenes in this episode are filmed in a studio, it doesn’t feel like that and the quality of the picture doesn’t change at any point.

Jackie sadly comes across rather annoyingly. She comes across as your rather typical council flat mom just after a quick money. At no point during this episode did I like her very much and when she was about to be wiped out by wedding dress Autons, I didn’t worry about her. Noel Clarke is sadly saddled with a character that is a bit wet really. In recent years the character of Mickey grows up by in this episode it’s rather frustrating. The worst bit comes after his incident with the bin. He gets this weird make up to make him look different. It’s just

Clive is played by Mark Benton and I could watch Benton in pretty much anything. He plays someone who has been studying the Doctor and comes across as some sort of conspiracy theorist. The idea that the Doctor leads a trail of is a clever one because he would leave a mark and in this age of things being logged it is inevitable that you could put things together. Sadly he gets shot in the face by an Auton which seems somewhat unnecessary and right in front of his son and wife with no follow up on how they are. It is perhaps the downside of a story taking place in just forty-five minutes that this sort of thing couldn’t be addressed but I think that had this happened twenty-years earlier then it would have formed part of the story.

There are things that don’t work so well. The series of pictures that Clive shows Rose don’t look convincing. The worst one is the one of the Doctor in Texas 1963. Another thing that doesn’t work is the effect of Mickey being pulled into the bin. It looks a bit dodgy.

The episode has a NEXT TIME bit at the end of the episode which is something that is a 21^st century thing which in the absence of a cliffhanger is the thing used to lure people into the next episode. It’s a nice little teaser but considering I am watching it in 24 hours time it doesn’t have quite the impact that it did in 2005. As an opening episode it did what it needed to do and I think satisfied the long-time fans and draw new people into the show. I thought that there was plenty to like and thought that the performance of Christopher Ecceleston and Billie Piper were good and now the introductory episode is over it means that the show can get back to being the classic show it is but with better special effects