Review - The Girl in the Fireplace

The Doctor learns how to "dance" with the first in a long line of female historical figures in The Girl in the Fireplace.

Season 2, Episode 4 - The Girl in the Fireplace

Yo Dawg! I heard you like time travel, so I put some more time travel into your time travel show. This episode makes extra special use of time travel. The idea of one participant in the story taking the long road whilst the other skips ahead is very interesting. Of course the episode is apparently loosely based on The Time Traveller's Wife, so we cant award too many points for that. We do get more touches of the culture shock theme, with Reinette having that same "left behind" experience. She handles it much better than Rose or Sarah Jane though.

We skip between a space ship in the far future that's been repaired using bits of its crew, and pre-revolutionary France. I liked the way the characters were split between the timelines. It gave Rose and Mickey a chance to prove themselves without The Doctor. This opportunity could have been exploited a lot more than it was though, as the episode was squarely focussed on The Doctor, almost the complete opposite of The Companion Show featuring The Doctor. Strangely this is almost as bad as focusing on the Companion more than The Doctor. There really does need to be a good balance.

You stay here. I've got to sort someone out.

THING!

Sort something out.

Our main monster is the Clockwork Robots, who again fit the mould of advance slowly and be creepy. They work in this story though, despite no explanation of why they are made of clockwork. I mean a teleport, no matter how short-range, must require a power source beyond mere clockwork.

As if the French aristocracy wasn't creepy enough.

The whole episode is pure Hunka hunka burning Doc though. Reinette jumps The Doctor's bones with little more than two brief meetings when she was a little girl and a five minute conversation under her belt. Moffat keeps the dance metaphor going strongly in this story, dropping a very strong implication that The Doctor and Reinette had sex.

The relationship is solidly written though, and for whatever reason I can accept this sexualisation of The Doctor more than any other instance in the show. Perhaps this is a testament to Moffat's writing. I can believe that this girl successfully got through the layers and seduced The Doctor through a combination of her natural charm and his innate need to protect. 

Not to mention being face-meltingly hot.

The pacing of this episode is spot on. The short-range teleports combined with the nature of the time windows and the Clockwork Men's mission means they can be easily fended off with little fear of them returning until much later. This gives us little bursts of action amongst the talking and flirting. It was nice to see Rose get her comeuppance though. At least she had Mickey as a fall-back.

The climax of the episode was great, with The Doctor not only risking all and stranding himself in the past (albeit with a smoking hot lover) but doing so by riding in on a white charger. Not the only fairy tale parallel in this episode, but definitely the coolest.

Of course there couldn't be a happily ever after in this situation. What we did get was perfect though.

I've just got something in my eye... Again.

Despite the whole episode being pretty much all about The Doctor falling in love and someone falling in love with him, I enjoyed it. Removing this episode from the context of ongoing instances of Hunka hunka burning Doc, it works as that one time a girl managed to turn his head. It is significantly diminished by all the other times it happens (or is implied to happen) though.

Still, a very watchable episode, with much more of an historical feel about it despite its quite solid sci-fi core.

8/10

Can we fix it?

I'm sure many would be expecting me to demand less Doctor love here, but in all honesty in the context of this episode, I'm fine with it. All of the bits with The Doctor and Reinette are great. But when you look past that the rest seems a tad light on. 

I feel if we had a bit more meat on the bones of the Rose and Mickey side of this story, we could have found out more about how the ship and its attendant robots got into the state they did.

The way I see it, the ship originally only had a small group of maintenance droids. These robots cannibalised themselves for parts first, replacing higher tech systems used in repairs to the ship with hastily manufactured clockwork facsimiles. Having used up their own parts, they turned on the crew, replacing their bits with clockwork too. A nice Tin Man parallel to go with some of the other fairy tale stuff in this episode. The clockwork is clearly a unique design, with The Doctor fawning all over it. That could be the reason why. 

This information could be revealed to Mickey and Rose through Mickey using his awesome computer hacking skills to unearth fragments of video logs from the Captain. This makes the Rose and Mickey section a bit more than wandering the halls waiting for The Doctor to get back so that they can tell him things they've seen and let him figure it out.

These recordings could also hint that the reason the crew couldn't fight the Clockwork Men off or order them to not use them as spares was because they only respond directly to the mission computer. This would be there as an early clue for the audience who realise they only respond to Reinette. When The Doctor finds out he of course puts two and two together without having to interrogate the Clockworks to get it.

We could even go so far as to hint that the original problem with the ship was limited just to the mission computer, and that the repairs made by the droids were purely to create the time windows. They cannibalised the ship to create the time windows, and cannibalised the crew to keep the ship running.

We can still leave the name of the ship as a mystery, but I think this fleshes the ship side of the story out a bit and gives Rose and Mickey something more to do.

The (Insert Noun) of The Doctor

The BBC have released the full poster for the 2013 Christmas Special, The Time of The Doctor.

More like The Time to Get Some New Title Ideas, am I right?

Quite why we had to have an almost identical name to the 50th Anniversary Special and the Season 7 finale, I'll never know. Besides that bit of old news, it looks like they're slapping a bunch of big enemies together again in a Too Many Monsters extravaganza.

Why Angels? I'm so sick of them. They are totally played out as a monster. I had hoped after The Angels Take Manhattan we'd seen the last of them. That was pretty stupid, I suppose. And trotting The Silence out again? What's the point of that? They should have been done and dusted after The Wedding of River Song. Teasers have shown references to Trenzalor as well, another plot point that should have been left alone after it was resolved in The Name of the Doctor.

I'm trying not to draw too many conclusions from this poster and the few teasers, but I fear we're going to get a bit of a cluster-you-know-what here, and my expectations are currently rather low. The best scenario I can imagine sees most of these monsters appearing in some kind of nightmare dream sequence of The Doctor's.

In the end, I'm just hoping the few seconds of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor make it all worthwhile.

Review - School Reunion

A couple of old favourites of mine returns to crank up the nostalgia in School Reunion.

Season 2, Episode 3 - School Reunion

We get thrown straight into this story with The Doctor appearing to be well into his investigation. It had me fearing a Go, go, go, Geronimo! situation, but in the end the pacing ended up quite good. It's obvious from the start that the Headmaster Mr Finch (deliciously played by Anthony Head) is up to something. Hell, we all but see him eat a poor orphan.

Apart from the obvious child chomping, we see the students are being used to do... something. Something with computers and crazy spinning cube graphics. It seems to involve a lot of randomly tapping at the keyboard.

We're trying to get the complete works of Shakespeare.

The Doctor and Rose manage to draw out clues about what's going on in a timely and natural way. Mickey reappears to show us all how he's not just a buffoon, at least not a total one, with his hacking skills getting stronger. And of course we get the wonderful Sarah Jane Smith return. Sarah Jane is an all time favourite companion of mine, so it would be tough for this episode to go too far wrong for me.

The monster reveal stumbled a bit though. It was a reasonable idea to give a glimpse of the undisguised Krillatine under the desk, but it ended up being entirely too much of a glimpse. The transition as he stands up was really smooth though. 

A network cable is unplugged.

We saw a little bit of Deus Ex Screwdriver with a good old Deadlock Seal sitting there like a lump of kryptonite. That didn't end up hampering them much though. The Doctor spent more time investigating what the Krillitines were up to than he did working out a way to stop them. Hell they all spent more time gabbing than even investigating. Despite all that, it worked quite well. 

A big part of this episode deals with that culture shock of a returned companion. This was touched on in The Parting of the Ways with Rose's big emotional speech in the chip shop. Sarah Jane shows us that the displacement felt by Rose at that point never really goes away. Elizabeth Sladen really conveyed the conflicting emotions of joy and resentment a dumped companion would feel. 

Despite their common ground, Rose and Sarah Jane get to be delightfully bitchy with each other at first. Mickey seems to take particular delight in this situation. I think I would too. 

The girlfriend and the ex. Welcome to every bloke's nightmare.

Mickey also delights in rubbing it in to Rose that The Doctor seems to have a thing for traveling with young girls and then upgrading.

I'd go easy on the chips.

This is all a reasonable indication that Mickey is at least a little over Rose at this point. Rose, on the other hand still seems to be trying to keep Mickey on the bench, asking if the situation at the school was the only reason he called, and giving him the flirty eyes. Even at the end of the episode when Mickey decides to join The TARDIS crew, Rose looks really pissed off.

Hey Rose! The boyfriend and the ex. Welcome to every girl's nightmare.

This episode hit me square in the nostalgia, with a bunch of references to old episodes. It moved forward at a decent pace, and despite a lot of interplay between characters it never got bogged down or felt too "talky". Even the Bond Villain explanation of his plan by Mr Finch seemed sort of natural and The Doctor's temptation in the face of his offer seemed genuine. This one is very much a favourite.

9/10

Can we fix it?

Just a couple of tweaks to this one, I think. First up, that initial monster reveal was too much. It needed to just be a quick flash of something inhuman under the desk before the teacher stood up. Looking right at the kid and screeching was over the top and ruined the full reveal later. Just his eyes would have been enough.

Putting a Deadlock Seal in there was a bit lazy. There's several other ways they could have kept The Doctor out of the gubbins. Perhaps there was a booby trap, or breaking in would cause a feedback loop into the kids' minds. The enhanced state the kids are in could leave them open to psychic distress or something. Not hugely important, but an easy fix.

More K-9 would have been nice too, but the episode is already crammed full, so I couldn't begin to suggest where he could fit.

Review - The Day of the Doctor

Well there was a whole bunch of hype leading up to this momentous event. It could have gone either way, but I'm glad to say it lived up to the hype, and I very much enjoyed The Day of the Doctor.

The 50th anniversary Special - The Day of the Doctor

Starting with the original credits and a reference to both Coal Hill Secondary School and the I. M. Foreman scrapyard where we first encountered the TARDIS in An Unearthly Child, right from the off you can see we are set for a whole flood of references to the past 50 years of Doctor Who. We had a couple of references to Omega, a big scarf, some nice bits and bobs in the Black Archive, and to my great pleasure, a reversal of the polarity. Sure, it wasn't of the neutron flow, but obviously The Doctor has sharpened his physics knowledge in recent years.

Nostalgia ahoy!

The Moment was sort of interesting, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it choosing Rose/Bad Wolf as it's interface form. This essentially boils down to getting Billie Piper into the episode somehow, really, but that's fine. It would have been good to see the Interface shift a few times to take on other forms using file footage. Maybe just flicker between them at times, or when first settling on a form.

When Ten and Eleven get together the interplay between them is truly awesome. Matt Smith and David Tennent have a clear chemistry on screen that gives a wonderful energy to the episode. I was worried John Hurt's War Doctor would end up being all dour and sombre and kill the buzz, but he only made things better. I loved every second of Hurt's interplay with the other two Doctors. In a way he was an in-show avatar of me expressing confused bewilderment at where Doctor Who has ended up, commenting on everything from the age of the other Doctors to the use of the phrase "Timey wimey".

They're scientific instruments, not water pistols!

Despite making fun of many of the things that usually irk me, we still had a whopping great In-Who-Endo added when Ten and Eleven compared Sonic Screwdrivers. We had plenty of other bits of funny banter between them without resorting to a tired old dick joke, thanks very much.

Hur hur hur! Willies.

Some of the scene transitions seemed to be a bit weird. I recall one wipe came in far too soon, whilst Kate Stewart was still talking, which seemed a bit sloppy to me. That said, the morph effects on the Zygons were awesome. Really smooth and natural looking. The 3D paintings looked really cool too. I imagine seeing it in 3D would have been quite the treat at that point, but I feel it would have been wasted throughout most of the rest of the episode.

The episode did have some pretty glaring continuity issues though. I'm still struggling to see how this whole thing fits with the events of The End of Time. The Doctor is clearly now looking to find Gallifrey and restore it to the galaxy, but he was previously determined not to let the Time Lords return because they planned to destroy reality. Is the Time Lock the same thing as the Stasis Cube, or are Rassilon and the other Time Lord high council trapped somewhere else? Hopefully subsequent episodes that build on this story and fill in the gaps, because I am rather confused at the moment. I may have to re-watch The End of Time again and see if that helps. It would have been awesome if they got Timothy Dalton back in to play Rassilon though.

There were also some internal story issues with Elizabeth and the Zygons. She would have had to be remarkably quick thinking to be able to replace the Commander and subsequently find out all of the details of the Zygon's plans without arousing suspicion. Overall I found that to be a tad clumsy even with the offhand "they never considered I would survive" line. It was fun to see the gap in Ten's life just previous to The End of Time filled in there. Of course you have to feel bad for Liz because you know she's going to end up bitter and hateful towards The Doctor. I'm also left feeling The Doctor is a bit of a dick for following through with the wedding when he wasn't actually interested. And how is he able to tell Ood Sigma about it? Doesn't he forget? Either way, John Hurt made that little bit of Hunka hunka burning Doc tolerable.

Is there a lot of this in the future?

It does start to happen, yeah.

The Zygon plot was sort of left unresolved. I don't think it would have taken too much to make mention in the closing scenes of whatever resolution they came up with. It felt a little unfinished, or that Steven Moffat decided it wasn't important any more, as we'd moved on to resolving the Time War plot, which was far more interesting and important. In a way it was always just a secondary plot that provided the vehicle for plot exposition as well as the final solution, but it got so much screen time that I feel it deserved more of a resolution than it received.

Throwing Capaldi in there at the end was inspired. I only wish that was the first reveal of him in the role of Twelve. The fan reaction would have been insane, especially if it was just that short flash of his eyes. There would have been so much discussion about who it was. Such a missed opportunity.

Do you recognise these eyes?

Overall I'm excited about how things were left, even if I was a bit annoyed at throwing Tom Baker in there with a weak "reusing old faces" line. Seeking out and freeing Gallifrey is a great way to go, assuming the aforementioned plot confusion is addressed. Most excitingly it gives us an opportunity to resurrect a sorely wasted foe.

The Master is waiting!

10/10

Can we fix it?

No. All we need was a bit more exposition on some of the minor plot points and the removal of a rogue wang reference. It was a perfect homage to the 50 years, encapsulated in that epic final shot.

Review - Tooth And Claw

The Doctor and Rose take yet another jaunt to the Victorian era, this time in Scotland so the new Doctor can take his native accent for a spin in Tooth and Claw.

Season 2, Episode 2 - Tooth And Claw

We open on a precession of sinister looking monks. We know they're shifty because they're all wearing black hooded robes. Well, for a while, anyway. The black is soon shed in one of the most genre-wrenchingly random moves I've ever seen, as the monks bust out some  Shaolin wire-fighting Kung Fu action.

History's coming to life!

The Doctor and Rose appear in Scotland just in time to meet up with Queen Victoria herself. I can see why there is so much crossover between Whovians and Steampunks. The Doctor does seem to spend an awful lot of time in the age of steam. Pauline Collins was far from a dead ringer for Vicky. They could have padded her up a bit or something. Still, she did a top job. 

Not a lot of Maccas on the road to Scotland.

Hong Kong movie tricks aside, this is only a slight twist on a classic monster movie plot. People alone for the night in an isolated manse at the mercy of The Wolfman. Lycanthropy as an alien inteligence was an interesting concept, and was exposed reasonably well over the course of the episode. Sir Robert's story telling was maybe a bit of a clumsy or rushed way of getting the background out there, but within the constraints of the 45 minute format, there's very few ways of doing that.

The werewolf effects were very good though. The change scene was slick and the creature itself was very natural looking, with only the occasional bit of dodgy movement.

Don't mind him. Time of the month, you know?

The idea of a trained allergy to mistletoe as a means of control was inspired. If the monks worship the Werewolf, though, why do they feel they need to control it? If the creature itself is aware of the plot to infect Queen Victoria and is clearly a willing participant, why is it being hauled around in a cage?

I liked the use if the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the solution. I also adored the fact that the solution was not The Doctor's, but had been devised years before by Prince Albert and Sir Robert's dad. The Doctor only had to put the pieces together. 

I believe the term is "Pew! Pew!"

Of course the big reveal of this episode is the creation of Torchwood, which as we know, is the season arc for season two. This one is by far the least subtle season arc hint of them all. The Queen's detailed explanation of her plan to set up an institute to fight aliens was verging on Bond-villain monologue.

More than enough of a hint without a word being spoken.

Despite the unanswered questions about the monks and their relationship with the creature, this is a very watchable episode. The pacing was good and the supporting characters, with the possible exception of Father Angelo, are all strong and well performed. All up, quite re-watchable.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Only a couple of tweaks needed here, really. As we are already taking the time to tell stories around the dinner table, surely Father Angelo could have given us a bit more of an indication of his part in the whole thing. It'd be tough to balance with The Doctor's research in the library scene. A nice subtle hint at the end of Sir Robert's chunk of plot exposition would have been better than having a little sing-song.

Review - New Earth

Back into the swing of things again with the new Doctor, this time taking a trip far into the future to meet an old enemy on New Earth.

Season 2, Episode 1 - New Earth

We get very early hints at the villain in the form of the spiders from The End of the World. Just to be safe we're also given a verbal reminder by The Doctor talking about Earth burning. Of course this leads to a very early reveal of Cassandra and her new attendant, Chip.

Of course this early reveal is a bit of a fake-out, because whilst Cassandra is up to no good, she is clearly not the main issue here.

The Sisters of Plenitude were a solid set of Agent Goons, set up nicely as the sort of villains that think they're doing good. Of course there are all sorts of subtle moral questions at play here, and it's funny because I can sort of sympathise with the Sisters here. I suppose it depends on how you feel about things like cloning and animal testing.

It's a perfect excuse to see Angry Doctor though.

I like how they worked in an explanation on how the clones can communicate. It may have been a bit half baked, but it was worked in naturally and didn't really need to be expanded any further. The clones themselves were yet another "move forward slowly and menacingly" Zombie-like type of Monster Goon. 

Grrrr! Arrrrgh!

The Doctor's eventual solution seemed a little glossed over and was rather simple. I get why the disease would be instantly transferred on touch, but why was the cure also transferred? The cure liquid was somehow strong enough for the residual amounts transferred by the brush of a hand to be effective on those heavily infected clones, but used on the patients it took days to work? Hmmmmm.

Cassandra's ability to disembody and possess a new body was similarly glossed over. Was that a side-effect of the Psycho Graft? Why didn't she just possess a Sister and get the info she needed that way? I suppose inhabiting a non-human body would probably have been distasteful for her. Didn't stop her possessing The Doctor though.

A good chunk of this episode was devoted to re-establishing The Doctor as a love interest for Rose. It seemed they had decided by about mid-Season-1 that the relationship was platonic (apart from that bizarre kiss cure at the end of The Parting of the Ways) but now he's looking younger and hotter, seems Rose is back on the Hunka hunka burning Doc train. First we see poor Mickey getting played again:

"I love you."

"See ya."

Then we've got all of Cassandra's teasing and In-Who-Endo when she possesses The Doctor. Of course Cadsandra herself gets in on the action:

To be fair, if you'd been a flap of skin for a few hundred years,
you'd probably jump whomever was handy.

The Doctor's reaction to it is a weak, "I've still got it." Now that's a classic line and was played well. Sadly it doesn't fit The Doctor at all. There is clearly a strong push to make this relationship romantic from early on.

Cassandra's end this time around was much better though, much more Doctor-like than Nine's murder through inaction. It was a good way to end the episode. Not quite enough to fully salvage it though. Ultimately there wasn't much to this episode beyond setting up the Doctor / Rose romance. I could really take or leave this one.

5/10

Can we fix it?

Of course the first thing I'd do here is ease up on the romance. The subtle hint with Rose not reciprocating Mickey's "I love you" was enough. All of Cassandra's teasing and The Doctor's reaction to the kiss can go. The kiss is fine, but The Doctor should push Rose away and be all, "What the hell are you doing?" This behavior from Rose should be as much of a clue something has happened to her as her not caring about the clones.

I'd add a bit more explanation to how The Doctor's cure worked. This would involve a bit of an expansion to the explanation of how the clones work. Essentially the clones are infected with everything and their modified immune systems are producing huge amounts of antibodies for all their diseases. In order to ensure the clones stay sick (and continue producing antibodies) they all have one specially designed cancer that somehow draws the antibodies into special tumours around the clones' necks and faces, where they are syphoned off by the Sisters of Plenitude to give to patients.

The Doctor determines that curing this "keystone cancer" will allow the clones' immune systems to distribute the antibodies and cure them. After some thinking and tinkering and mixing of cures, the overall solution plays out the same way with The Doctor adding a line about how the cure will be taken up and replicated by the clones and excreted from the skin once the tumours are no longer collecting it, meaning it can be passed on by touch. Once their immune systems have destroyed all of their multitude of illnesses they return to normal.

Just a little extra depth to make the ending easier to swallow. It'd still not be a favourite, but they can't all be, can they?

Review - The Christmas Invasion

After a little break, I'm back with the retro reviews, so off we run with a brand new Doctor in the first of the annual Christmas Specials, The Christmas Invasion.

Christmas Special 2005 - The Christmas Invasion

We begin presumably not long after the closing scenes of The Parting of the Ways, with The Doctor still in the throes of Regeneration. We also kick things off with one of the most laboured executions of the "Doctor Who?" line ever committed to screen. Seriously, even with The Doctor's new face, it just doesn't seem like something Jackie would say at that point. That pales into insignificance next to the outrageous In-Who-Endo she delivers in the next scene. I know I've let Jackie off on the Hunka hunka burning Doc front before, but this is just silly.

Is there anything else he's got two of?

Mickey gets to show off his newly found hacking skills, lessening his perceived uselessness in the ensemble. He has a good crack at the Deathmas Tree too. Say what you will about him, he's got guts and heart to spare.

U.N.I.T. really shine in this episode. A very slick military operation. I quite enjoyed the casual way they talked about alien life, ensuring some continuity with classic Who episodes from the Third Doctor years and onward. In many ways I'd have liked to see U.N.I.T. get a spinoff over Torchwood.

Like S.H.I.E.L.D. only with a better acronym.

Speaking of Torchwood, they are heavily referenced in this episode, with clear implications that they are a secret organisation with access to alien tech. It was a solidly integrated reference, rather than a random word thrown in. It played a part in the story, even if it was to seemingly throw Harriet Jones under the bus.

Harriet Jones as Prime Minister was a nice touch, but the catch phrase / running joke was grating from the outset. Despite that, they manage to make her believable as a strong, decisive leader. Mostly they do that by having her stick it to the US, which reminded me somewhat of Hugh Grant in Love Actually.

They were really pushing the continuity with this one though. Nine tells us that Harriet Jones PM leads Britain to a Golden Age. Then, what can't be more than nine months later, despite Jackie referencing Britains Golden Age, Jones' supposed "three successive terms" evaporate thanks to The Doctor. I guess he's not all that interested in maintaining history. Of course they could already have been looking ahead to the Season 3 Saxon arc, but I'm not sure I can give them the benefit of the doubt on that one.

The timeline is a bit iffy here anyway. I'm not sure nine months is enough time to plan, build and launch a Martian space probe, much less for it to get there. But this is a science fiction show, after all, so let's just ignore that for the time being.

This episode has a case of Too many monsters, with the crew facing the "Pilot Fish" Santas and the Deathmas Tree which are both quickly discarded when the Sycorax turn up. None of the monsters are particularly threatening and don't have a chance to shine. The Santas are just Auton clones and the tree, whilst the most physically threatening of the three, was gone as soon as it appeared. The Sycorax themselves were a bit lame. If the Earth could be defended by a sword fight, there are plenty of humans who would have done as well as The Doctor. Of course it took him to know he could challenge. 

The whole thing was very Doctor light too. He spent most of the time unconscious and when he was awake he put a lot of effort into making sure we all knew he didn't know who he was. To a degree this is for the benefit of newer fans who aren't familiar with Regeneration, but it's almost as if they hasn't worked that out themselves yet. With such little screen time The Doctor is given no chance to show us who he is now. I'm left feeling that who The Doctor is, is angry.

Angry Doctor.

Get used to this sight.

So, a reasonably entertaining episode, albeit with a few flaws. Not a favourite, but still re-watchable.

7/10

Can we fix it?

I think the first fix here has to be the monsters. The idea of the Santas being like pilot fish was interesting, but ultimately made little sense in the context of the Sycorax being the shark. The Sycorax were drawn to Earth by the Mars probe, not The Doctor's regeneration energy, which created a disconnect between both races. Ideally the Sycorax should be demanding Earth hand over the source of the energy, unaware that it is The Doctor, perhaps thinking it's the TARDIS. They would still take the Martian Probe, allowing the whole blood control thing, but realisation of where the energy is coming from would only come when The Doctor regenerates his lost hand.

This opens up some interesting options for The Doctor to realise that whilst he may save the Earth, he is also endangering it. We could even have Harriet Jones use this as justification for using Torchwood to destroy the Sycorax.

"You brought us to this, Doctor. I was defending us from a threat you brought down on us."

Shooting someone in the back is one thing, but shooting them in the back and then blaming someone else is another thing entirely. Especially when your words have the ring of truth.

Resolving the timeline issues is tougher, but could be fixed by bumping the timeline forward a fraction more. It would be hard to jump an additional 12 months, but that may make things easier to swallow with regards to Harriet Jones. Another option would be to simply not have her as PM yet. Nothing said she needed to begin her reign immediately after World War Three. Of course with all that happens in the resolution of the Saxon Arc, that causes all sorts of other issues. That said, if Jones was still PM at the end of this, the Saxon Arc could play out entirely differently, with Saxon battling Jones for the top job using his knowledge of the future. That could have been fun.

The timeline stuff I could live with, but the changes to the monster situation would make it a much more cohesive episode.

Lost Episodes recovered!

There's been a persistent rumour for a while now that a whole bunch of lost episodes (some said up to 100) had been recovered in Nigeria. Today, the BBC announced that this was sort of true.

Film recordings of eleven episodes of Doctor Who – nine of which were considered ‘lost’ - have been discovered in Nigeria. 

All six episodes of The Enemy of the World and five of The Web of Fear were found by Phillip Morris, director of Television International Enterprises Archive, in a television relay station in Jos, central Nigeria.

Now whilst this is nowhere near the number originally rumoured, the recovery of nine lost episodes is monumental, and makes me very happy indeed. Of particular interest is the recovery of (most of) The Web of Fear, which saw the first appearance of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, one of my favourite all time companions.

This discovery gives me hope that somewhere in the dusty vaults of a near forgotten TV station storeroom lay other lost treasures just waiting to be reclaimed.

Season 1 wrap-up

After working my way through Season 1, I thought I'd do a little wrap-up.

My scores

Episode 1 - Rose                               8/10
Episode 2 - The End of the World        7/10
Episode 3 - The Unquiet Dead             7/10
Episode 4 - Aliens of London               8/10
Episode 5 - World War Three              7/10
Episode 6 - Dalek                             10/10
Episode 7 - The Long Game                8/10
Episode 8 - Father's Day                     7/10
Episode 9 - The Empty Child              10/10
Episode 10 - The Doctor Dances        10/10
Episode 11 - Boom Town                     5/10
Episode 12 - Bad Wolf                         8/10
Episode 13 - The Parting of the Ways   9/10

                              Season Average = 8/10

Three episodes were 10/10 for me, which I suspect will be tough for another season to top. If it wasn't for the Godawful Boom Town, it would have been mostly killer and very little filler.

Winner

Winner

Chicken dinner

Ongoing problems

Let's see how the season fares when it comes to the ongoing issues I always go on about (otherwise known as my pet peeves). Not all of them had a showing in Season 1, but the ones we did see were the ones that annoy me the most.

Season 1 saw:

• 3 episodes featuring instances of Hunka hunka burning Doc
• 4 episodes with In-Who-Endos
• 4 episodes that resorted to Deus Ex Screwdriver

That last one surprised me the most. I honestly thought it took longer for the Sonic Screwdriver to become a crutch for The Doctor, but there it is. Interestingly, all four of those were in the latter half of the season.

I was also a bit surprised to see the Hunka hunka burning Doc start so early too. I would have sworn that didn't happen until David Tennant came in. Still, one of those three was from Jackie "upright with a pulse" Tyler and despite the odd relationship between Doctor and Companion in Season 1, the other instances of this are mostly from other females, not Rose.

Though not all of them

Season Arc

The Bad Wolf arc played our quite subtly on the whole. There were a couple of excellent hints, but there were a couple of horrible ones too. Some, like the landing chopper in Dalek seemed a little forced. To my mind, there is no reason there has to be a season arc reference in each episode, so if it can't appear naturally, why force it?

Ultimately Bad Wolf is little more than a verbal reference to the final episode. It's supposed to be a warning, but how? what did it warn them of? And whilst The Long Game technically ties in, it's not as integrated as they could be. As I said in my review, The Doctor simply neglects to ask any of the questions that he really should have asked. This is where more could have been done to hint at the arc. It's tough to have The Doctor ask questions in case he gets answers, but so long as the answers only lead to more questions, it will work well.

A solid season arc is one that has clearly been planned ahead and worked into multiple story lines, with dialogue and situations clearly (at least with hindsight) having been included to progress the arc story in advance of its dedicated episodes.

Bad Wolf doesn't feel like that, and could easily have been written last and the words retroactively added during filming. The only hints that really feel properly integrated are Gwyneth's scene in The Unquiet Dead and maybe The Doctor's realisation in Boom Town. Gwyneth shows us Bad Wolf is tied to Rose, and The Doctor's soliloquy makes the implication that the words are somehow following them. Later seasons seem to do better at progressing the arc story than this first one though.

All up a very entertaining season with some all-time classics in it.

Anniversary poster revealed!

The BBC have just revealed the poster for the 75 minute 50th Anniversary special, named The Day of the Doctor.

John Hurt looks badass! I see exploding Daleks, bits of TARDIS and a Bad Wolf reference.

I'm freaking excited!

Review - The Parting of the Ways

Season 1 comes to a dramatic conclusion, as does Christopher Eccleston's all too short tenure as The Doctor in The Parting of the Ways.

Season 1, Episode 13 - The Parting of the Ways

We pick up this story with The Doctor and Captain Jack flying off to rescue Rose from the recently revealed Dalek armada. Here I get a little confused as to why all of the sudden the TARDIS is apparently defenseless. I thought it always had some kind of shielding, but I could be somewhat confused. After bodging up a shield using the Extrapolator we get treated to a nice long conversation with the Emperor Dalek, wherein we learn it has a God Complex and it loonier than usual.

After The Doctor, Jack and Rose escape, there was an awkward bit of sexual tension back on the Game Station between The Doctor and Lynda. I thought they were hinting at that in Bad Wolf, but wasn't sure until the weird, kiss-no-hug-no-shake moment. Very strange, and possibly one of the few Hunka hunka burning Doc moments with Nine.

As the Doctor begins enacting his plan to foil the Daleks (not really using the Sonic Screwdriver much if at all), he forcibly evacuates Rose back home using Emergency Program 1. Rose then has a significant culture shock freak-out. Her speech about how The Doctor teaches you to lead a good life was inspired, and very well delivered. It really dug its claws into me for some reason. Maybe because I sort of feel that way about The Doctor myself in a way.

The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know, he showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say, "No." You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away...

I loved the classic flying saucer design of the Dalek ships, and the flood of Daleks pouring out of them was a fantastic sight. We also saw our first specialist Dalek of New Who in the form of a blowtorch wielding one. We also got to hear some classic Dalek lines:

"I cannot see! My vision is impaired!"

Then the big companion tease with Lynda is ended with a silent, "Ex-ter-mi-nate!" You can't hear the Dalek say it, but you know what each flash of those lights means. Little details like that are always appreciated here. When Jack's time came, he copped it sweet, and it would have been a perfect ending for him if things went differently.

Captain Jack Harkness. Dying, like a BOSS!!!

There's a lot of ethical agonising over killing all life on Earth to destroy the Daleks, and you could see the conflict in Eccleston's face as that scene played out. The Doctor chooses not to be that man again and to face the consequences of that decision. Rose channeling the Time Vortex gives a handy out to that problem, and if she'd showed up a couple of minutes earlier, we could have been in for a repeat of the end of Boom Town. I was glad the Doctor made his choice before Rose's return.

I can't work out if I liked Time Vortex Rose or not. Was she nailing the performance, or failing badly? In the end I just went with it. I'm confused as to why absorbing the power of the Time Vortex was fatal to The Doctor, but not to Rose. She had the power for much longer and suffered no ill effects beyond passing out. I suppose this is likely a symptom of Eccleston suddenly leaving the program though. And quite why The Doctor had to kiss the Time Vortex out of her, I can't begin to imagine.

The Doctor prescribes 200 CCs of Lurve.

So, all told this was a solid episode, and a great way of ending the season despite the quite literal Deus Ex Machina ending. It was also a reasonable send-off for Eccleston, who, as I've said before, was woefully under-rated as The Doctor. If we'd have had another season or two with him, I think more people would appreciate Nine.

9/10

Can we fix it?

Not really, no. I know I haven't given this one a straight 10, but I can't really pick where it could be improved. Perhaps the way it ended makes it feel a bit rushed. Rose is able to deal with the Dalek threat in a literal instant, making The Doctor's 20 minute struggle to get the Delta Wave generated seem a bit of a waste fo time. A bit of explanation on how Rose survived the Time Vortex but it caused The Doctor to regenerate would be nice. All it needed was a throwaway line during the Regeneration sequence.

Minor tweaks, anyway. Still totally re-watchable.

Review - Bad Wolf

Stuff starts getting REAL as the season 1 season arc bears delicious Dalek-fruit in Bad Wolf.

Season 1, Episode 12 - Bad Wolf

Back we go to Platform 5, a century after The Doctor made his gross assumption that everything would go back to normal, only to find that it didn't. That worked well, didn't it Doctor? If only you'd asked where that Jagrafess had come from. Seriously though, I love to see The Doctor as fallible.

This time around the concept of televisual thought control is taken to the next logical step, with reality TV being the focus. As an added bonus of revisiting this episode, I also got to revisit some of the crappiest TV programming of the new millennium.

It really is a wonder this stuff didn't last.

The droids are all delightful representations of their real life inspirations, and the games work well as ways to destroy people. All except the What Not To Wear show, which really forced a way to kill the contestant. Those segments were the most entertaining though. John Barrowman plays it so well, clearly enjoying a chance to really ham it up as Jack. And did I see him grope one of the droids at one point?

Yes. Yes I did.

This episode has also given us our first Deadlock Seal to stop any Deus Ex Screwdriver. We got our first Torchwood reference too, starting that neat tradition of teasing the next season arc.

We get a bit of what I'm going to call Companion Tease, where Lynda shows an interest in traveling with The Doctor, and The Doctor shows an interest in letting her. Or is that just an interest in her. I couldn't really tell from this if there was supposed to be a romantic spark here or just an interest in travelling. Either way, this helps support Rose's "death" by making it feel like they're introducing a replacement.

She certainly seems the type.

The Controller was nice and creepy, and she was offered up as a solid Red Herring villain. Her death gave a good hint at who the Big Bad really was. We got a bit of monster vision when Rose woke up too, which again gave a strong hint. The revelation the enemy are Daleks plays out nicely, and the threat level of one Dalek established in the episode Dalek makes us understand this threat is near unbelievable.

It was interesting that The Doctor defied the Daleks when that were threatening Rose's life. I'm not sure he could have known they wouldn't just exterminate her. He did end it well though, and the closing shot of the interior of the Dalek ship was just ace, and left me hanging for The Parting of the Ways.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Well, my only real bugbear with this episode was the reality shows the crew ended up in at the start. Of all of them, I think Big Brother is the only one left on the air, so it hasn't aged well. The main issue was that the What Not To Wear show didn't have a realistic way of destroying people. This is a tough one, because those sequences were so entertaining, but I think they needed to either figure out another way to get the disintegration ray into that show, or put Jack in a different show altogether. Perhaps some version of The Bachelorette would have allowed Jack to give us some awesome Jack moments but still retain the element of elimination common to the other two shows.

Bring on part two!

Review - Boom Town

After wearing out the edge of my seat over the past two episodes, I was able to firmly plant both cheeks on it for the rather ponderous Boom Town.

Season 1, Episode 11 - Boom Town

There was pretty much no reveal in this episode, which is understandable considering the villain. We know Margret's face from Aliens of London / World War Three, so there's no real reason to keep the Slitheen hidden. Strange how the farting seemed less of an issue in this episode. We get a few early on, but not one during the date. Perhaps Margret was holding it in. I suppose we've all been there on a first date.

Jack continues to prove a valuable addition to the cast. The dynamic is great with the three of them. Sadly Mickey, who gained ground in the competency stakes in Aliens of London / World War Three is set up as the stooge of this episode. He's specifically shown in a shot for shot comparison to not match up to Captain Jack, and I think overall he is once again, unfairly treated.

Things get a bit philosophical in parts. There's lots of deep back and forth which all boils down to nature vs nurture. We get a bit of a theme of new beginnings here, both for Blaine and for Mickey. I was so happy to see Mickey give Rose a serve here. God knows she deserved it. And it was a sweet serve too:

We were nice. We were happy. And then what? You give me a kiss and run off with him and so make me feel like nothing, Rose. I was nothing.

Just what needed saying.

This episode had a lot of tie-ins to the season arc. The Doctor actively recognised the Bad Wolf connection, and although he supposedly brushed it off as a coincidence, we all know he's worried about it. We also get introduced to The Heart of the TARDIS, cutting down on the exposition needed there. Of course, the TARDIS having to refuel sort of goes against the established background of the Eye of Harmony which reappears to contradict this again in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.

Of course, the In-Who-Endo keeps coming with Jack still around. Even The Doctor got in on it, implying he'd give Jack some sugar if Jack bought him a drink. Mickey at least pointed it out, calling Jack "Captain Innuendo". I do think Blaine's line to The Doctor, "Dinner and bondage. Works for me" was a step too far.

...aaaaand we're back to horror.

We also get another instance of shocking Deus Ex Screwdriver, with The Doctor "de-teleporting" Blaine several times. How is that even supposed to work?

Sadly, the whole episode drags horribly. There's a lot of talk, which in itself is well played out and touches some interesting themes, but unfortunately the actual threat is underdeveloped. The ending seemed a bit rushed, with anything really threatening happening in the last 10 minutes.

We've been talking for half an hour and the kids are losing interest.Quick, make something explode!

It was a bit of a cop out, really. Quite literally Deus Ex Machina, with the TARDIS acting as a Genie to grant wishes and make everything all right again. I'd have preferred to see what The Doctor would actually have done with Blaine.

This isn't one I'd go out of my way to re-watch.

5/10

Can we fix it?

This would pretty much require a total re-write. All we can really do is minimise the damage by cutting out the big-ticket problems.

The de-teleport gag was only mildly amusing, and not worth giving the Sonic Screwdriver more power for. I'd have dumped it altogether, or have The Doctor come up with some other way of interrupting the teleport signal and looping it. It could even have come out funnier if The Doctor didn't seem to actually be doing anything until he pulls out a small device, revealing it to be a "short-range teleport interference loop" or similar.

Much of the meat of this episode deals with the moral dilemma The Doctor should be facing. It really feels like the audience is being ripped off by having that dilemma neatly taken away. I just can't think how else to end the story though. I'd like to think we could have been introduced to the Hearth of the TARDIS without the egg ending, but also then have The Doctor show mercy despite Blaine's actions, warning her he'llbe keeping an eye on her.

It still wouldn't be a great episode, but I'd have less to complain about.