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!