(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.

(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.

(714) The Girl in the Fireplace

The Girl in the Fireplace is a story that when I watched it back in 2006, I didn’t get because I missed the first few seconds of the episode. With today’s episode being Mickey’s first in the TARDIS there wasn’t the same set of scenes that there were when Adam joined. Whilst Rose might have been as keen about him joining as Adam, that seems to have been forgotten when this episode starts. I think that time travel suits Mickey because he takes to it rather well.

Moffat does his what is making a noise when the obvious source of the noise would have stopped. He did it in The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances. The creepiness factor that was evident in that story is in this episode because the clockwork droids are very creepy. Steven turns up the grimness to 11 in this episode with the fact that the droids have been using the crew for body parts. There is a camera with an actual eye in it and there is a valve pumping that is a human heart.

Sophia Myles plays Madame De Pompadour who is the focus of the clockwork droids’ attention and it’s a good performance. The character of Madame De Pompadour is one that is rather good because she meets the Doctor at a young age and then becomes someone that falls in love with the Doctor and their relationship is one that is doomed to fail. It’s sad really because in such as short time they have grown quite close and when the Doctor discovers that she has died the scene where he reads the letter is very gloomy.

The Doctor crashing through the mirror on the horse is very impressive and this leaves the last ten minutes about the Doctor being stuck in Versailles and Rose and Mickey stuck on the ship. The Clockwork Droids are defeated by the mirror breaking and its an interesting change of tact for a Doctor Who episode. The Doctor is the sort of person who is always on the move and now (for a short period anyway) he has to settle down and he could have picked a lot worse.

The mystery about the ship is one of the things that I like about this episode. The droids are after Madame de Pompadour because they think that when she gets to a certain age then she will be right to fix the ship which is revealed to be named after her. The Doctor is right when he describes them and thick because it is quite a silly mistake to make and its one that could have been prevented. It does raise the question as to why the crew didn’t attempt to tell the droids this or programme them about this.

This has been a good episode that looks stunning and has some strong performances in it. Steven Moffat’s track record in the show continues to go well. The story is also well directed and the story does well in going from the space ship to Versailles very well and more importantly, I have found Rose to be less annoying that usual.

(713) School Reunion

This episode is famous for three things. The return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 but perhaps just as importantly, Anthony Stewart Head appears and almost steals the show. When I watched this back in 2006 I was totally preoccupied with her return but fast forward nine years to today, I think that Anthony Stewart Head is probably the best thing in this episode. In time terms, its been 23 years since Elisabeth Sladen had been in Doctor Who but in marathon terms it been about four months.

The Doctor is a teacher and Rose is a dinner lady. Had she not gone off for adventures in time and space I could easily see her cleaning tables and dishing out chips. If Jamie Oliver were writing a Doctor Who story then elements of this would be his. Chips leading to something bad is the sort of thing that he would have come up with.

The thing that was going to determine whether Sarah Jane Smith’s return was how she was bought back and its done rather well. She’s back to do what she does best and that’s by being an investigative journalist. The look on the Doctor’s face when he first sees her is pretty much how every fan was feeling and that is just astonishment. The looks of astonishment continue when Sarah Jane stumbles across that TARDIS and then realises that the person she thought was just a teacher was in fact the Doctor.

The jealousy of Rose when she meets Sarah Jane does seem a bit of a step back for Rose after the progress made in the previous episode. I think that the jealousy isn’t quite as annoying as it was when Lynda was being friends with the Doctor but it’s still a character trait that is becoming annoying and the strop she throws when she thinks that the Doctor will forget about her only adds to the problem.

There is a nice little scene between the Doctor and Sarah Jane where the Doctor learns there are consequences about her travels with him. He also learns that she didn’t get dropped off in Croydon but in Aberdeen.

Back to the subject of Anthony Stewart Head. Everytime he is on screen I think that he is superb. His face to face seen with David Tennant is one of my favourite scenes in the entire episode. ASH plays the fine line between villain and pantomime villain. The Krillotaines are a good villain however with the return of Sarah Jane and K9 as well as Anthony Stewart Head, they kind of get lost in the shuffle which is perhaps the one things that the story gets wrong. It is interesting that when they are in human form they walk with their arms behind them. It’s also interesting that they are bits of other races and this is something that could have been looked at more.

I hate writing this but K9 sacrificing himself was a moment that made me like the character. I am still unmoved in my original opinion of the character but it was a lovely moment.

The goodbye scene between the Doctor and Sarah Jane is heart-breaking. It’s because of David Tennant and Elisabeth Sladen that it works and the fact that K9 is hiding behind the TARDIS as a surprise present is the perfect way to end the episode. When Sarah Jane is offered the chance to go back travelling in time and space, I wanted her to say yes but I always get disappointed when this doesn’t happen.  

This has been a lovely episode but it’s one that ultimately seems to purely serve fans who has watched the show for years. New fans might not have taken as much from it as fans like me but it’s another well written episode with some very good performances and it is nice to see Elisabeth Sladen back in Who again.

(710) The Christmas Invasion

So today I start the David Tennant era and I yesterday I said I wasn’t going to watch it but I cant think of a proper reason why not so instead of just watching it as an episode and then waiting until tomorrow to watch the opening episode. This is technically the first episode for David Tennant although its only eight minutes long and nearly two minutes of that is taken up with the reprise and the titles. It’s not fair really to rate this episode as it only serves a purpose in telling fans what happens between the regeneration and the TARDIS crash landing in the Christmas Invasion.

David Tennant in Christopher Eccleston’s costume is odd and its good that he doesn’t stay in it for long. I suppose that one thing this episode does is get through the inevitable ‘its not the Doctor thing’ although it does carry on to a certain extent in future episodes. It’s an interesting portion that doesn’t really add anything and if you hadn’t watched it at any point then you wouldn’t have missed anything.

Due to the success of the previous series, a new series was commissioned but also a Christmas Special was added to the list. This was only the second time in the shows history that it had aired on Christmas Day but this was designed as a Christmas Special and not just a throwaway episode in a twelve part Dalek epic. At the moment its late April and the sun is shining and the weather is warm so its slightly odd that I am watching an Christmas episode now. With the special being 15 minutes longer it means that there is more time to tell the story and the opening scene is quite good cause the TARDIS crash lands and Jackie does the first Doctor Who gag of the new era. The new Doctor spends most of this episode in bed which probably wasn’t how David Tennant thought he was going to start his time.

Penelope Wilton returns as Harriet Jones but this time as the PM that the Doctor talked about in World War Three. She’s doing the same joke of introducing herself but the joke is suppose to be funnier because she’s the most famous person in Britain. Even when she’s delivering a sombre Christmas Day speech she manages to slip in some gags. She asks about the royal family and after a pause she turns to the camera and says that they are on the roof. It’s quite impressive how RTD manages to put jokes in when it seems to be totally inappropriate.

The Robot Santa’s are a wonderful design as its just a bonkers idea but one that works and it works so well that RTD brings it back the following year. Another great thing that happens in this episode is the attacking Christmas Tree. Only in Doctor Who could an aggressive Christmas Tree feature in a Christmas Day episode. The main threat of the episode are the Sycorax who are a good looking monster. They show their credentials as villains but hypnotising a group of people to walk to the edge of high rise buildings and threaten to make them jump.

When the Sycorax ship arrives on Earth the way it is shot is very much similar to Independence Day when the ship is hovering over New York City. This is when the episode starts to take a step up because its when things start to go a bit wrong. It’s quite good how they manage to get the Doctor, Rose, Mickey and the TARDIS aboard the Sycorax ship. It’s also quite good how they manage to get the Doctor up and mobile and really into the story. His first scene when he is himself is great cause it starts his time in the show properly. Tennant has a great skill of balancing drama and comedy. I had always been unsure about Christopher Eccleston’s ability to do comedy but I overcame that but I have never been in doubt about Tennant’s comedy ability and he seems to be able to do both very well and its hard not to like the Doctor when he is doing comedy.

It’s nice to see the Doctor doing a bit of sword fighting. When he was doing the fighting I was reminded of the sword fighting that Jon Pertwee’s Doctor and the Master did in The Sea Devils. This was better because it was more dramatic. This fight sees the Doctor lose a hand (something which becomes handy in Torchwood and a future Doctor Who story) but RTD creates a new piece of Timelord mythology when in the first 15 hours of a regeneration cycle he can grow back his hand.

Torchwood gets started in this episode with Harriet Jones mentioning them. It is responsible for destroying the Sycorax ship and this is an important moment because it is when the Doctor angry and it sparks the end of the Harriet Jones regime. Torchwood is the story arc for this season and it makes much more sense than the Bad Wolf arc.

I love the scene where the Doctor is trying on clothes. The song is nice and sung well and it blends in well with the Christmas dinner. Everything seems to be back to normal now and the troubles of the Doctor regenerating is sorted. The final scene sees snow falling or ash as it turns out to be but its looks like snow so that definelty makes it a Christmas special. It’s a nice end to what has been a rather good Christmas special. It did what it needed to do and did it well. It starts the Tennant era off in fine style

(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

(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.

(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