(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.

(755) The End of Time - Part One

How do you end David Tennant’s tenure in the right way? It’s the sort of question that JNT had to answer when Tom Baker left the series. The way that RTD has decided to mark the end of the Tennant era was to have a two parter which has a combined running time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. The new Mad Max film was shorter. The opening scene starts with Timothy Dalton talking. An actual James Bond is in Doctor Who. Dalton is credited as The Narrator but it’s clear by the way that he is talking that he is far more important to the story than it seems. The Master returns to this story but the thing about the last time he was in the story it seemed like he was done in a permanent kind of way. I remember reading that the Master was suppose to take part in Jon Pertwee’s final story but the death of Roger Delgado put a stop to that.

Bernard Cribbins returns (which is always a good thing). It’s quite good that he gets a credit in the title sequence along with John Simm and David Tennant.

There is a woman that appears in a church scene with Wilfred Mott and her identity is a bit of a mystery. It turns out that the woman is actually the Doctor’s mother. I think that this could have been clearer.

The business of the ring falling to the ground and being picked up in Last of the Timelords is finally addressed and it was picked up by a member of a group of people who are believers of The Master/Harold Saxon. They bring him back and the thing that sets it all off is the lipstick from Lucy Saxon. This is something that I think is a bit of a stretch and that she would still have the Masters imprint on her lips are such a long time. However during the ‘regeneration’ process things wrong and this is what makes the Master mad (I mean madder) and this is what I like about the Master. When the Master is ripping a cooked Chicken to pieces it shows how mad the character is.

There are two people that are totally annoying. I found Joshua Naismith (David Harewood) and Abigail Naismith (Tracy Ifeachor). They are wealthy people and I just cant stand them from the very moment that I first saw them. I quite like David Harewood as an actor as he is very good in Homeland but here he poorly served by a character that is a poorly realised part of the story. The characters get the comeuppance that they deserve when they get taken over by the Master.

The scene where the Doctor and Wilfred are talking about dying is one that I found really good. It shows how good Wilfred would have been as a companion. I know the in-thing that the companion has to be young but he was only about 81 at the time so that’s quite young. Isnt it? The downside of this story is that it’s the last time that Bernard Cribbins will feature in a Doctor Who story. I suppose I will have to enjoy the final episode even more. Catherine Tate makes a sort of cameo appearance. It’s weird to think that just a few days ago she was a companion and now she is reduced to a basically a supporting role. The two cactus like characters have more to do in this story.

President Obama announces a plan to fight the recession. It’s something that gets mentioned a few times and to be honest I couldn’t be bothered with it. The only reason to have it in the episode is that he turns into the Master. When Obama appears there is some clever camera angles to hide the fact that its obviously not the President.

The whole episode builds up to the Master becoming every single human on the planet. It’s such an epic idea and it works really well. It’s odd that a Christmas Special would have a cliffhanger but it is an ending that the story deserves. The cliffhanger sees Timothy Dalton (Rassilon) standing in front of a chamber of timelords. The sight of them is superb and is the perfect way to leave things. I found this episode to be largely good and think that the 75 minute finale will be just as good as it needs to be.

(754) The Waters of Mars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(753) Planet of the Dead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(752) The Next Doctor

When this episode aired on Christmas Day 2008, it was well known that David Tennant would be leaving the show and Matt Smith’s announcement was still a week away. The title seem to exist purely to give people the impression that the new Doctor would be making his/her debut in this special. But of course things with RTD are never that simple and in fact the title is a bit more complex than you would think. When this episode aired on December 25, 2008 it was day 1,096 meaning that he overtook Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton and becomes the fourth longest serving actor and also the fourth actor to go past the 1,000 day mark.

David Morrissey is one of the guest stars. He stars as Jackson Lake who thinks he is the Doctor. He has a sonic screwdriver which is just a normal screwdriver. There is a moment when the Doctor notices a fob watch on Jackson Lake but its just a broken fob watch. It’s a nice comedy moment. Another comedy moment is the revelation of his TARDIS which is a hot air balloon. His TARDIS stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed in Style. That is quite clever of RTD. The truth about Morrissey’s Doctor is that he is in fact Jackson Lake.

Dervla Kirwan plays Miss Mercy Hartigan and she is one of the successes of this episode. She is very good from the very beginning of the episode. Miss Hartigan is working for the Cybermen but like most humans, she thinks that she will be the at the court of the Cyber King. The scene where she walks through the cemetery attending the funeral is a great scene cause she’s dressed in red and the snow helps her stand out more. Things seem to be going well for her but just before the Cyber King is launched its clear that Miss Hartigan will become the Cyber King.

The Cyber shade are another RTD disaster. It’s like a dog with a rusty Cyberman mask. Luckily they aren’t in it that much. I cant make up my mind about the head piece of the Cyber Leader. On one hand its very distinctive but on the other hand it looks a bit odd. Black and Silver can go together but no on this occasion. The Cyber King is criticised when people talk about this episode but I have to be honest that I really like it. I like the idea of the Cyber King stomping its way through London. It also looks visually impressive so I cant quite understand why it people are so down on it.

This episode sees the first example of the Doctor’s previous incarnations. I think I remember hearing/reading that Julie Gardner was reluctant about this idea but I think that the show had been back long enough that people would be aware about the past Doctors and will have even bought Doctor Who DVD’s so it’s a nice little nostalgia moment.

The thing about this story is that its not really designed to be taken seriously as like most stories in the series (like the other Christmas Specials) so its unfair to lump it in with the other specials. I thought that this story had its moments and the things that were right with it were good enough to make me like it. I thought that the two David’s were equally great and also Dervla Kirwan was more than capable of keeping up with them.

It’s not the greatest Christmas Special but it was an enjoyable one and it had David Morrissey in it and that’s never a bad thing.

(751) Journeys End

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(750) The Stolen Earth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(749) Turn Left

With yesterday being a Companion-lite today’s episode is the Doctor-lite episode however unlike previous Doctor-lite episode, this features the companion so this is the opportunity for Catherine Tate to show she is just as good as David Tennant was in the previous episode. It’s been a while since I have really looked forward to an episode but today was one of those instances. It is another episode that appears to be relatively cheap.

The thing about this period of the new series is that when you have created enough of your own history then you can use it as you wish. There are moments from The Runaway Bride, Smith and Jones, Voyage of the Damned, Partners in Crime and The Sontaran Stratagem/Poison Sky.

The whole idea of the episode is what happens if Donna turns right instead of going left. I think the only aspect of the episode that doesn’t work is that the whole putting a beetle on the back thing doesn’t really seem to have much relation to whats happening in the final two episodes.

This episode shows us what would happen if the Doctor had died. During the spiders star bit from Runaway Bride its implied he has died and this is when things really go wrong and when the Doctor seems to be out depth in Midnight, it seems that Donna is equally out of her depth in this episode. Without the Doctor around people at the hospital from Smith and Jones die (apart from one), the Titanic crashes into Buckingham Palace and that means a radiation leak meaning the people are evacuated and this is when Donna’s life really goes down the shi**er.

This is the episode where Rose returns. This is the first time that she has properly been back in the show since her brief appearance in Partners in Crime. There have been the occasional glimpse of her on a screen or something so its good that she is finally back. The encounters between Rose and Donna are quite interesting. Rose isn’t as annoying as she was during her original run in 2005/06.

Catherine Tate gives a stunning performance. She has to basically kill herself to force her original self to turn left instead of right.  You would have to be a pretty cold sod to not thing that this was a very good performance from Tate. When you think of the Donna that we saw in The Runaway Bride then it seems like two different characters. Someone jumping out in front of a lorry is a brave thing to do in a family drama on a Saturday evening.

Bernard Cribbins manages to bring some humour to the episode. This episode is pretty light on humour and yet Cribbins manages to remind me that I’m not watching an episode of Eastenders. Jacqueline King is the surprise of the episode as she is really good and I have almost forgotten the rather nagging tone she takes in the Sontaran two-parter.

Sarah Jane makes a brief appearance during the hospital in the sky bit and characters from the Sarah Jane Adventures are mentioned. It’s like RTD is going to the trouble of slowly bringing them into the Doctor Who world.

We don’t see the beetle that’s on Donna’s back and it’s a wise thing because any more shots of it then it would look a bit dodgy. The shots that are short and simple and it’s the sound effects that make it more terrifying that it otherwise would have been.

The episode ends with Donna saying Bad Wolf and the Doctor realises that writing everywhere in the market place the episode is set in says BAD WOLF. I like how even the TARDIS has BAD WOLF written everywhere. This episode compliments Midnight really well because it shows how good the two leading characters really are and it allows them to have the same amount of screen time and sets up the final two episodes of the series really well. Recently Big Finish released The Worlds of Big Finish and now I am about to embark on The Worlds of Russell T Davies. Question is whether this will work.

(748) Midnight

Today’s episode is what could called a Companion-lite episode as Donna Noble doesn’t feature too much in the episode. It is also a rather cheap episode which is when this show really shines. Today is my birthday and in previous years I have watched episode two of Robot and listened to episode five of Marco Polo. It’s fair to say before I even watched todays episode that this would be the strongest birthday episode.

The Doctor ends the pre-title scene by saying “What could go wrong?”. If that doesn’t set off alarm bells in peoples head then there really is something wrong with them. It’s a cheap episode because the action takes place in a shuttle. The Doctor is stuck in a shuttle with about half a dozen people and things start ok but it was never going to last. With a lot of people in a confined space it was inevitable that they were going to start bickering.

David Troughton makes another appearance as Professor Hobbes. It’s a great performance from Troughton because at times it a nice gentle performance and then sometimes it is a rather cruel performance when he is talking down to Dee Dee. Colin Morgan appears as Jethro but would go on to play Merlin in……Merlin. I haven’t watched a great deal of Merlin but he doesn’t strike me as a particularly strong on screen presence and he suffers the same problem here because he pops up every so often and doesn’t contribute very much.

Lesley Sharp is the big name of the episode and she plays Sky who isn’t the most liked person on the shuttle but soon becomes the one who is possessed. Her interactions with the Doctor are spectacular especially when she is copying what people say in one of the more unnerving moments of the episode. She really is creepy in this episode and the moment when she appears to be normal and the Doctor is frozen to the spot is a chilling moment.

One of the things that I like about this episode is how the Doctor isn’t the one in charge and can’t force people to do what he wants. The Doctor is always in control and it’s quite good how this is tested. The moment that they all turn on the Doctor and it’s great to see David Tennant play the Doctor in a different way. With the number of his episodes running low, it’s one of the last strong performances from him. When he is being dragged along the floor as he is about to be chucked out of the chute it’s a great moment because he is truly powerless.

This might not be a physically demanding episode but it is certainly a mentally draining one. It’s good when the show does this cause it shows that you don’t need lots of visual effects to be an entertaining 45 minutes of drama. There wasn’t an alien, there wasn’t a Dalek or a Cyberman but just some superb performances. This is the strongest story of the series so far and the build up to the return of Davros starts now and it’s a good episode to watch on my birthday.

(739) Partners in Crime

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(738) Voyage of the Damned

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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.

(735) Utopia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(727) Gridlock

Gridlock is one of those stories that I have always had a soft spot for. I don’t know why but I do and this series is going from strength to strength. The Doctor promising Martha with just one trip was never going to be just one trip and he breaks this rule pretty quickly. The first TARDIS scene is quite nice because it is The Doctor trying to tell Martha about Gallifrey is quite sad and it’s the first time that he’s stopped and thought about his home world since that little scene in The End of the World.

Gridlock is a very apt name because people move incredibly slowly. It takes 12 years to move 5 miles. I have days like that going to work.

Martha is kidnapped by Milo and Cheen because it means that their car has three passengers. Your not a Doctor Who companion until you have been kidnapped. This is the first time that Martha has been separated properly and Martha holds her own with Milo and Cheen. The Doctor spends the entire episode trying to find Martha and yet the episode works this way. It’s fun seeing Martha pretty much thrown in at the deep end and at one point comes to the realisation that she could die and her mum and dad wouldn’t know what happened to her.

The car that appears in different guises is the same set. Some credit needs to go to the set designers because it cant have been an easy task but they pulled it off. It helps that the different characters that feature in each car make it seem like a different home. Due to the speed that they are travelling at they are basically living in these cars. I don’t think I could live in them as there isn’t very much room in there and the lack of Bluetooth means that I couldn’t listen to any Big Finish on my phone.

Ardal O’Hanlon is a guest star in this episode and I know him best for playing Dougal McGuire in Father Ted. He is disguised as a cat and plays Thomas Kincade Brannigan. It’s hard not to like Brannigan because he is so cheerful. I think that the character could have featured more but I suppose the restrictions of the plot mean that he is stuck in the one car. It’s another example (Peter Kay being the first) of ideal casting been squandered.

The song Abide with Me is a wonderful addition to the episode and its lovely in the context of this bleak setting. Then again it’s not exactly an uplifting song because everyone (bar the Doctor) gets all emotional. A classic era makes a surprising return in this episode. There was no hint anywhere that this monster was going to return. The Macra last appeared in 1967 so it’s a monster that hardly anyone has ever seen. I don’t know what the point was really because they could have been nameless and it would have worked the same.

This episode sees the third and final appearance of the Face of Boe who as mentioned in New Earth reveals his secret and its that the Doctor is not alone. This is basically telling the Doctor that there are more Timelords. Although the Doctor is convinced he is wrong which will be explained in future episodes. There is a nice explanation about the Time War which is the first time that its been talked about any certain degree. This ending was perhaps a lot more downbeat than I had remembered in the past but overall I thought that the performances were strong and Richard Clark did a great job in directed what was largely a CGI episode and did a great job of making it seem like their were loads of cars instead of just one. The next episode is the first two parter of the series and from memory its not one of my favourites.

(725) Smith and Jones

These new series are going fast. It only seems like five minutes that I was watching Rose and here I am watching the first story to feature Martha. After saying goodbye to Rose and briefly saying hello to Donna, we get introduced to Martha Jones and for a moment I just wanted to stat things up. Between the Christmas Special and todays episode just 96 days had past and that that is the shortest gap between stories since seasons 5 & 6 back in the late 1960’s and it’s the sixth shortest in the shows history. Having thought that the previous series wasn’t as strong as it could have been, this is the first one where the people writing for the show knew what sort of Doctor they were writing for and this shows. Like Rose, this has to introduce Martha and that means that there is a family to introduce as well. It really doesn’t take long for Martha to show why she’s better than Rose. Even her family is better than the Tyler’s.

The Doctor and Martha seem to hit it off straight away and it’s a different dynamic than there was between the Doctor and Rose. The romance is reigned in a lot with these two. There is a nice explanation given by Martha where she says she has a cousin that worked in Canary Wharf and this gets around how the two look the same.

The monster of the week is a Rhino looking race called The Judoon. They look really good and their first appearance is one of the highlights of the episode because to see them marching along the service of the moon isn’t something that could only work on new Doctor Who. The Judoon are basically policeman and it’s a great idea from RTD and I know they appear in future stories but this will always be their best appearance. They show their power in just towering over people and they work well in the story. The cool thing that takes place in this episode is the hospital that the Doctor and Martha are on is taken and placed on the Moon. That is a great idea and the visual effects help make it look really good.

Anne Reid returns to the show after appearing in The Curse of Fenric and in this she plays a blood sucking alien calling herself Florence Finnegan. She gets her blood by using a straw which was a source of irritation to many but I just thought that it was a really amusing way and it sort of doesn’t make the how blood sucking thing seem as terrifying as it would normally be. The Judoon are after her but she’s disguised as a human and she sucks the Doctor’s blood and is discovered by the Judoon so she basically trips herself up.

This is the series where the Saxon story arc begins and its not until the end of the episode where Saxon gets his first mention. It’s a blink and you miss it but at this time of the show, we had all got use to listening out for any mention of Saxon or Torchwood or Bad Wolf. Saxon got mentioned in the Christmas Special but the mentions are now goings to be far more frequent. I think that this is the strongest series opener that we have had. Rose was good just because we were glad to have it back and New Earth wasn’t very good really but this was the one which got it spot on and I am even more excited about this series.

(724) The Runaway Bride

It seems like there is a breath of fresh air now that Rose isn’t in the story although clearly there was going to be the occasional mention of Rose. The last Christmas Special had to introduce the Doctor and spent most of it with David Tennant in bed so this time it could be a proper Christmas Special. The thing to remember is that the Donna Noble that appears in this episode isn’t the one that would return in series 30. So the annoying way that Catherine Tate performs as Donna isn’t the way that she would continue to be like. The thing about her performance is that it’s very much like some of the characters that she played in her sketch. More about her later.

The comedy is quite good. One moment is when drivers think that Donna is drunk or in drag. What helps the comedy work is that both David Tennant and Catherine Tate are very good comedy performers and work well together.

One of the most impressive set pieces is the Doctor trying to rescue Donna from a moving Taxi whilst its on a motorway being driven by a robot Santa. The special effects used to make the TARDIS move around look really good and quite an exciting moment. Another impressive aspect of this story that works well is the Empress of the Racnoss. Close up it looks like good make up and prosthetic but when you see the whole thing it looks vast and impressive. Even her ship is very well designed and it almost seems a shame when she is transported to earth. Sarah Parish plays the Empress and gives a what could have been a rather comedic role.

The thing about Donna is despite being a rather brash personality. She’s not totally annoying. After enduring Rose it was just nice to have something different and on this rare occasion, the brashness is forgivable. It’s a good performance from Catherine Tate who has a less than enviable job of taking Billie Piper’s spot as lead companion.

Donna was supposed to be getting married to Lucas who turns out to be working for the Empress. At the time I didn’t see it coming but now it seems rather obvious. I’m not always quick when it comes to this sort of thing. I know when it was announced that she was going to be a companion that a lot of people thought that this was a terrible idea but I knew that they would tone down the brashness and she would become more palatable.

The company that Donna works for turns out be owned by Torchwood and they build it around the Thames Flood Barrier. It’s quite amusing that RTD used such a rather low key feature of London in such a way.

The story itself is rather good and moves along at a nice pace with some impressive moments throughout. The references to Rose were tolerable and Donna was used in a good way. At the time it was designed to be a festive holding piece until Martha joined the show. It was a nice Christmas Special and it was fun and in many ways a stronger special than the previous one. The NEXT TIME trailer that was shown at the end of the episode did a good job in reminding me how strong this series was and just how much there is to look forward to.

(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.

(720) Love and Monsters

Love and Monsters is the only story (to date) that has made me angry. During the course of this marathon there have been stories that have disappointed me or bored me but no stories have ever made me angry. This story is first of what would become a sort of new series tradition where it doesn’t feature the Doctor or the companion as much. Due to the popularity of the show, fourteen episodes were ordered by the BBC but had to be made during the same production time as thirteen so that meant that the two episodes were pretty much made at the same time and there had to be a story where the Doctor and companion weren’t at prominent in the story as they normally would be. The thing is that no one really knew this before transmission (or I certainly didn’t) and that is what was the centre of the anger.

This story sees Peter Kay guest star in the episode. Now to me Peter Kay is one of the funniest comedians I have ever seen and his live show is fantastic and I was thrilled when I learnt that he would be appearing in Doctor Who. Kay appears as Victor Kennedy who then turns out to be is as an Abzorbaloff and the Abzorbaloff….well absorbs people. The character was a prize winner from Blue Peter and its not a bad idea and Peter Kay actually saves the episode.

Marc Warren plays Elton who is someone who has had quite a live which has centred around the Doctor. There are some nice nods to previous earth adventures including Autons and the events of Aliens of London. He joins the London Investigation ‘N’ Detective Agency or LINDA for short. It’s has a serious reason for existing but sadly it’s the comedy that sort of takes over. Ultimately the problem with the episode is that the comedy is totally out of place. Normally RTD does a good job of mixing the comedy

The flirting of Elton and Jackie is rather irritating. I don’t care about it and yet its given so much screentime. The reaction that Jackie gives when she discovers a picture of Rose is in his coat is quite good but sadly I have had to endure such nausea for so long. It’s not the fault of Camile Coduri and I actually feel sorry for her because of how much the character has improved during the course of this season.

There is another reference to Torchwood and there is a reference to Bad Wolf and also a Saxon reference which is the first mention of the next series story arc. In 2006, this didn’t seem to mean much but in retrospect it makes sense.

When the Doctor and Rose really get involved in this episode that is when it starts to get back to some sort of normality. If only the episode had been five or six minutes long then the episode would have been much better than it turned out to be.

“You upset my mom” is a line that a friend of mine uses when critiscing Rose Tyler. It’s not the worst thing about the character but its not the best thing that Rose does because within minutes she’s feeling sorry for Elton. Watching this episode, I didn’t have the anger that I did back in 2006. My rating for this episode is 6.22 and at the moment, it’s the second worst story ever. The previous worst story was New Earth and this is much worse because it’s another case of the humour not sitting right with me and it by far the worst new series episode that there has been. In fact I don’t think that there are many (or any) episodes which are worse. Anyway at east its out of the way.