Review - Doomsday

It's double the classic foes as Daleks and Cybermen clash with humanity trapped in the middle in Doomsday.

Season 2, Episode 13 - Doomsday

This episode picks up where Army of Ghosts left off, just as the Daleks escape the Void Ship. Rose and Micky stare them down as Rose postpones their inevitable slaughter by showing she has a strategic use. Meanwhile, the Cybermen begin their conquest of Earth as The Doctor stands by helpless. Of course our old friend Angry Doctor shows up again briefly as he explains why humanity is resisting.

I'm a bit cross!

As the Daleks extract Raj's brainwaves for intel, desiccating him in the process for some reason, the Cybermen move in to investigate. The resulting confrontation is one of the funniest moments in New Who. Two supremely confident murderous races in a stand off refusing to back down. Some of the lines delivered by the Daleks in this verbal fracas are a little off base. A little too blusterous and even witty. This is a bit off-putting until later when we learn from The Doctor that these Daleks are special.

The Cult of Skaro is an interesting concept, and works quite well despite being very un-Dalek. Most large militaries have similar units for, well, I suppose it's R&D. Whilst the Daleks are supremely confident of their might, it makes sense even they would want to work out better ways to EXTERMINATE! It also makes sense that such deviant behaviour be kept secret, regardless (or even because) of the benefits it offers.

After discovering The Doctor is on the scene, the Daleks begin powering up this episode's MacGuffin of choice, the Genesis Ark, as Rose and Mickey try to work out both how to get out of their predicament and why they aren't yet dead. Turns out the Daleks need a time traveller to activate the Ark because it it Timelord tech. Here's the major flaw in the Dalek plot. If Rose and Mickey weren't there, how were they planning on doing this? Fly around the Universe hoping to find a time traveller?

I was sure there was one here last time we visited.

The Doctor is held for questioning as Jackie and Yvonne Hartman are marched off for Upgrading. The Doctor is freed by a squad of dimension-jumping commandos led by some old friends from Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel, and gives a bit more plot exposition about the Void and how all this dimension jumping is irreparably damaging both universes. Hartman marches bravely to her doom, claiming she "did her duty for Queen and Country", before the death of the Cyber Commander allows Jackie to slip away.

Just as Rose is about to capitulate and touch the Genesis Ark, The Doctor rolls up, but not before Rose has a chance to drop some proper bad-assery on the Daleks, referencing the Bad Wolf arc and revealing she killed the Emperor Dalek. The Doctor rescues Rose and Mickey, managing to get a little joke about the Sonic in while he's at it.

Doesn't Kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim. But I'll tell you what it does do.It is very good at opening doors.

But Mickey messes up and accidentally starts the Genesis Ark opening. This leads to a significant battle between the Daleks and the remaining Humans and Cybermen as the Daleks attempt to exit the building. Long story short, an entire Time Lord prison ship's worth of Daleks spew forth from the Ark and begin to EXTERMINATE!

After a rather uncomfortable reunion between Jackie and Dave, The Doctor reveals his plan to suck everything back into The Void. This relies on the fact that everything that's been through The Void is covered in "void stuff." This is particularly grating, because The Doctor has already gone to great pains to describe how The Void has nothing in it, not even time. So what is the "Void Stuff" then? Also, why do Cybermen who have been upgraded in this universe also have it?

Quite apart from that, the plan works, and all of the invaders are forcefully ejected from the universe. However Rose almost gets sucked out too, only to be saved last minute by a dimension-jumping Dave, leaving The Doctor alone on this side. This leads to the scene voted the greatest moment in Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy. The emotion is turned up to 11 as The Doctor says farewell to Rose via a projected image. Despite being slightly over the top, it's a brilliant close to Rose's time with The Doctor.

This one's not exactly a favourite, but pretty re-watchable.

8/10

Can we fix it?

I'm not sure there's a lot to do here. As I said previously, making Yvonne Hartman a bit more officious would have improved her final redemption. If it was made clearer early on that duty is her main drive, her ability to retain that after upgrading would work a little better. I'd also like to have seen her more deflated when she realised there was no winning against the Cybermen.

I'm not sure if a bit of pleading would have been too much before the final acceptance, but I think a little exchange with the Cybers on doing her duty could fit nicely.

Y: I did my duty for Queen and Country. I always did my duty.
C: And that will not change.

And a slight tweak to her repeated phrase from "I did my duty" to "I will do my duty" reinforces this. It gives us a little bit of doubt on why she retained control. Was it pure willpower, or some kind of programming loophole. The tears would just add to the fuzziness.

The only other thing that needs clearing up is the Cybers created in this Earth. I think a quick line during The Doctor's epilogue in Bad Wolf Bay could tie up that loose plot thread. Something along the lines of "There were a lot of humans who had been upgraded using components from the alternate universe. It was... messy."

A good season ending and a great way to send off a companion.

And introduce a new one.

Season 8 full length trailer

The BBC have dropped the first full length trailer for Season 8. Check it out below:

First off, YAWN! Leading with a Dalek. I know they have to put them in every year for licensing reasons, but come on. That said, I don't think I recognised any of the other monsters or villains that appeared. Glad to see the Paternoster Gang in there, although they are also verging on overused now. But then there was this:

Someone better be riding this thing

I'm guessing that will be a part of the same episode as the Paternoster Gang, with the Dinosaur rising from the depths of the old Silurian Empire. We also get glimpses of a cybernetic guy, a robot knight and some sort of bug-eyed alien, so the creature diversity seems to have stepped up a bit.

The trailer seems very much focussed on the "what type of Doctor is he now" question. I recall when David Tennant first came on the scene, we had the same quandary, but it was well and truly resolved by the end of The Christmas Invasion. I kind of hope all of that is from the first episode of the new season, because it's not a theme I think has much longevity to it.

Either way, fun times ahead.

Review - Army of Ghosts

The season finale stakes are raised as not one, but two old enemies return to plague The Doctor and Rose, starting with the first instalment, Army of Ghosts.

Season 2, Episode 12 - Army of Ghosts

Right from the cold open we see this is the end of Rose. Not only does she lets us know we are about to see how she died, this is rammed home with a rather blatant shot of The Doctor asking how long Rose will be staying and her answering, "For ever." Having Rose narrate this opening gives it a touch of The Companion Show, featuring The Doctor. Of course, the reboot started very much from Rose's perspective, so her departure using that perspective is fairly natural.

The Doctor and Rose arrive back in London in time to witness an appearance of the now commonplace Ghosts. Jackie believes one of the Ghosts to be her long dead father, but The Doctor immediately brings her back to reality, theorising that something is pressing itself into our world. The Ghost's origins are rather quickly spoiled for us viewers with some cutaways of Torchwood doing their thing, complete with a familiar face

Hello, I'm Totally-Not-Martha

Of course, they could still be actual ghosts, even if Torchwood are responsible for it, right? Well, no. We get a pretty clear shot of a Cyberman early on as they attack Totally-Not-Martha. I feel it could have been better if this was left a bit more mysterious, keeping the blurry silhouette behind the plastic. Of course the ear buds could be a bit of a give away, but all the workers are wearing them, and if subtly shot, it would work quite well as a tease for the quicker viewers.

Add to that another of Torchwood's toys, The Sphere. It has a nice chunk of exposition which was delivered reasonably well and is set up as nicely menacing. The science doesn't really work, but that actually works to its advantage.

"As a scientist, nothing scares me more than poor science."

The Doctor manages to use some doohickeys (again, not the sonic) to follow the ghost energy back to Torchwood. Having him take Jackie and pass her off as Rose was quite funny but did highlight the Hot Young Things Only Policy he seems to have. 

Their introduction to Torchwood plays out well and all of the "showing off" manages to introduce some key elements for the resolution of the story in a relatively natural way. The Doctor's reaction to the sphere, now identified as a Void Ship, shows us this is something to fear perhaps more so than the ghosts themselves. And I actually love Yvonne Hartman's reaction to The Doctor here.

Oh, exactly as the legends would have it. The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the rights of Man.

And that's it, isn't it? It's fine when The Doctor messes about with something just because it's there, even if he doesn't know what he's doing. Nobody else is allowed to though. They are all too stupid.

Rose manages to sneak off to do some investigating on her own, psychic paper in hand. Apparently that stuff seems to work on ID card readers now. That was a bit annoying, but easily explained away, I suppose.

There's a brain in every door. 

And although things don't go exactly as planned for Rose, we get a nice little surprise with the return of Mickey, now with even more badass skills. God I love Mickey. The poor bloke had is so hard for so long. It was good to see him develop far beyond the joke he was at the start.

Anyway, as things start to predictably go wrong, we see the ghosts are in fact an army of Cybermen invading from the alternate universe seen in Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel. Mickey assumes the occupant of the Void Ship is some kind of Cyberman Leader, but in the closing moments we find out it is in fact...

Yep. Those guys again.

Overall, this has some good pacing. As I've said before, pacing is usually less of an issue in two-parters though. Apart from going a bit too early on the full Cyberman reveal we are brought through what is essentially a whole bunch of plot exposition and set-up for part two with no real padding or boring bits.

It was fun to see The Doctor put in his place a bit. He's always interesting when he's on the back foot. Yvonne was a bit weak as a pseudo villain though. Seems they tried to make her more of an officious manager than the domineering head of a secret alien-hunting task force. There were glimpses of that character there, but not really enough.

A good beginning of the end for Rose, and definitely worth subsequent viewings.

9/10

Can we fix it?

Only a few tweaks needed here. Simplest change is to lessen the initial Cyberman reveal to keep them secret a bit longer. A bit of classic monster-vision could have worked, or just the close up scream shot. The first time we should see any bit of an actual Cyberman is when they burst through the plastic sheeting in classic Tomb of the Cybermen style. This means watchers who haven't guessed from the earbuds or the sounds of upgrades are still reeling from this reveal as the invasion happens only to have that compounded by the emergence of the Daleks from the Void Ship.

Mostly I'd like to see a bit of a change in Yvonne Hartman. I feel she would have been better played as a bit of a cold-hearted bitch who slaps on the friendly façade as a "management tool". I reckon she may have been written like that but it didn't come through in the performance.

The dual personalities could easily work with little to no change in script. When Yvonne asks for hospitality to send Raj something she sounds friendly, but when she specifies "not alcohol" it's delivered as a bit of a joke. I think changing the delivery of this line to be more mean spirited would change the time of the character entirely. It goes from "get him something to cheer him up, but no booze because that could make him worse LOL!" to "get him something to distract him from the tedium of his task because that's bad for productivity, but not booze because we can't have too much fun."

There are points where Yvonne seems to drop the friendly exterior, such as when Jackie talks about using the gravity clamps to carry shopping, and when The Doctor demands they return the sphere to the void. Sadly she only gets a little condescending or snappish. It would be good to see this happen with the staff too. Maybe being a little more catty when Adeola and Gareth go off for their little liaison.

It would be nice to see that friendly mask slip more and more as the episode progresses. Eventually she is left ineffectually fuming at her loss of control, showing her as one of those bi-polar office tyrants that are your best mate when things are going well but go insane when things don't go their way.

Imagine someone like that in charge of a secret paramilitary alien hunting organisation.

Terrifying.

Needlessly Recurring Monsters

Doctor Who is no stranger to the return of existing monsters. There have been quite a few monsters and enemies that have appeared multiple times, but when you've been running for as long as Doctor Who has, you need to expect to re-tread old ground at some point. How it is done, however, is a fine art. Sadly, to me it seems many recurrences of monsters are rather ham-fisted, ranging from simple fan service to forced inclusion that requires changes to established canon.

If a particular monster resonates with the fandom, there's a very good chance it will return, even if that means changing the background of the monster. The big danger here is diluting what was a great one-off monster by making it essentially over stay its welcome.

The prime example of this is the Weeping Angels. They were great in Blink, but continual appearances made them boring. Their nature also needed to be expanded, because we already knew how to counter the threat, meaning some of what made them scary was diminished. So the Angels get new and increasingly silly powers in each appearance until they are every statue on earth and can throw people back in time, as well as be colossal, hollow, and made of copper rather than stone.

No. Just no.

Asylum of the Daleks is another example of this one. Daleks were changed from hugely xenophobic creatures so certain of their genetic superiority that they simply exterminate anything non-Dalek, to suddenly being cool with using alien corpses to make pseudo Daleks. This simultaneously flies in the face of established Dalek background and steals one of the scariest aspects of the Cybermen, all for some new monster type that is essentially a person with a Dalek eyestalk.

Seriously now?

If you have to change or add to the established rules for a monster to make it fit or make it threatening, why are you using that monster? Could you not create some new monster that has the powers or motivation you require? On the other side of the coin, if you've been asked to do a story featuring a specific monster, can you not (aside from asking why) stick to the established canon for that monster?

This is also a rather selfish act, as it often strikes me that an attempt is being made to build a pantheon of New Who monsters over the old classics like Cybermen and Daleks. It's clear from the marketing materials that the focus is on these new monsters that often appear more than they should. Angels, Ood, Silence, all could have been left at a single appearance without subsequent outings.

I include the Ood tentatively, as out of all the returned monsters their subsequent appearances were best integrated without feeling too forced or piling on additional powers. What is helpful in that case is that the Ood in their natural state aren't threatening. They are just a fairly normal alien race that requires external forces to make them malicious.

Luckily they're easy to spot

Sometimes monsters reappear as nothing more than a self-referential nod to previous episodes. This can work well, such as some of the brief appearances of Judoon after their introduction in Smith and Jones. If it’s just a subtle “remember these things exist in a wider universe” kind of reference, it works, but it can easily turn into a farce, such as much of The Time of The Doctor.

It's a big universe out there, and unless a monster is part of some kind of galaxy-spanning empire out for conquest such as the Daleks, Sontarans or Cybermen, bringing them back every season limits the scope of the Whoniverse with the only benefit the fleeting feeling of familiarity for fans to find... felicitous.

Review - Fear Her

The Doctor and Rose pop off to the 2012 London Olympics and deal with a couple of  in the lower budget offering, Fear Her.

Season 2, Episode 11 - Fear Her

This episode was apparently written as a lighter episode for kids and as such it didn't get much praise from older viewers. I'm not really sure why, as I quite liked it. Maybe it was the lack of flashy effects or gribbly monsters. For me, neither of those really matter, and their absence forces a reliance on writing.

Consequently the pacing of this episode was spot on, with The Doctor and Rose teasing out clues well and key events happening at a nice rate. From the cold open the scene is immediately set. It's 2012, kids are going missing, and there's a creepy little girl involved. When The Doctor and Rose show up we get nice subtle hints about the temperature and stalling cars which is vital later on. The Doctor points out the evidence of ionic energy being used, and seems to fairly quickly know approximately what is happening, if not why and by whom.

The interplay between The Doctor and Rose is really good in this episode. There's no real hint of sexual tension, and the whole thing plays out as more a master and apprentice type relationship as The Doctor sort of teaches Rose more about his world. I feel like this dynamic gets missed a lot, with The Doctor just pulling the companions along and getting them to do menial tasks with no explanation whilst he shows everyone how clever he is. Here we see Rose picking up on hints and being an active part of the investigation phase of the story. Then Rose has to deal with one of the lowest budget monsters of New Who, The Scribble of Doooooom!

Not at all scary. 

Of course in an unfortunate little bit of Deus Ex Screwdriver, The Doctor is somehow able to "kill" the scribble by waving the Sonic at it. At least he had to take it back to the TARDIS to analyse it. According to some other episodes, he should have been able to determine what it was made of with a little swish and flick.

The scribble leads them (thanks to Rose's insight) to Chloe Webber and her terrified mum Trish. There is strong implication Chloe was abused by her father, and this has clearly had some impact on her. Despite her Trish's assurance she is a "good girl' she has nightmares, and these nightmares are soon to become all too real.

Actually scary.

The Doctor soon finds out that Chloe is possessed by an Isolus, a creature he is familiar enough with to give us a full run-down on and get to the root of the problem. As The Doctor and Rose investigate, there's maybe a bit too much "telling" rather than "showing" particularly during the interrogation of the Isolus, but that's probably a result of the low-budget nature of the episode, as well as the difficulty of "showing" much of the information conveyed here.

Regardless of that, the story plays out well, and action resumes with The Doctor making some kind of doohicky (notice again, it's something the Sonic couldn't do). This gives some time for The Doctor and Rose to discuss the nature of the Isolus as a scared little kid. I liked the little "I was a dad once" reference there too, and Rose's reaction. Ultimately The Doctor's efforts are all for naught as Chloe and the Isolus vanish him, leaving Rose to figure out a solution on her own. Quite a refreshing change.

For all the talk of the Isolus needing and loving Chloe, and the implication these feelings were reciprocated, it seemed pretty quick to dump the kid once it could go home to it's family. This seemed a little off to me. Like some kind of fair-weather friendship. Its departure releases all of Chloe's drawings back to life, including the evil dad picture. And I've got to say, that looming shadow at the top of the stairs was scarier than many of the full-blown monsters of recent years. Perhaps it speaks to that child within that fears such half-seen and yet all-too-real terrors.

Scary as balls!

After everything is wrapped up, we get some nice foreshadowing of Rose's imminent departure. It's a little clumsy, but it plays nicely into the way the next episode opens.

All up, this is a fairly solid outing, even if it does have a slightly saccharine ending with the love-powered space pod and all.

7/10

Can we fix it?

There's not a great deal wrong here but I'd make a couple of tweaks. The departure of the Isolus needs some work and to do that I'd tweak the story in a few places.

Firstly, we would learn from Trish that not only was Chloe's dad abusive, but as a true bully he seemed to enjoy the fear he created. He lost interest in bullying his wife when she began standing up to him, but when Chloe came along, he found he could get more fear out of Trish when he threatened and hurt Chloe. She'd tried to leave. It didn't go well.

We also learn that Chloe isn't such a "good kid", but is in fact moody and resentful. Her behaviour in the episode isn't far removed from the every day, although since the Isolus' arrival, she has become more introverted and detached from reality, as she spends time sharing the Isolus' fantasies. More is made of her nightmares too. These are what drives her to draw her dad. Perhaps the wall around the drawing also shows damage, as though Chloe has been hitting the image. 

Next, when the Isolus leaves it wants to take Chloe with it by transplanting her into a fabricated reality. At this point Chloe feels alone and as though her mother failed her. The Isolus is offering a safe and fun life. After a heartfelt speech from Trish, the Isolus, having recently been separated from its family tells Chloe she should stay.

Whilst The Doctor is running with the Torch, Chloe argues with Trish. She wanted to go with the Isolus. The Isolus can keep bad things away. Keep her safe. At this point Chloe's heightened emotional state allows the drawing of her dad to fully break through. As the shadow appears Chloe goes catatonic with fear. Trish also shrinks away, as Rose is trapped outside, unable to help. Looking at Chloe and with her words fresh in her mind, Trish stands up to the phantom dad, showing Chloe she will always protect her.

I feel this would not only make a bit more sense in that the Isolus and Chloe's relationship isn't simply dissolved at a whim, but it's slightly more empowering to have Chloe's and her mum finally stand up to the dad and send him packing.

Review - Love & Monsters

The Doctor and Rose are virtually absent in the first of the now traditional "Doctor Light" episodes, Love & Monsters.

Season 2, Episode 10 - Love & Monsters

This episode is an odd one. The concept is actually quite sound, giving us some insight into those people The Doctor has touched and how they cope after he's gone. Not everyone is as impacted by him as companions are, but an impact he surely has. How does one go on after finding out there are aliens out there? Apparently one forms a support group.

When Elton Pope has a run in with The Doctor, he begins to realise many events in his life are somehow connected to this strange man and his blue box, including the mysterious death of his mother. Seeking out others with similar stories, he comes to form the hideously named London Investigation 'N' Detective Agency (LINDA) to find some answers. After a while the group focuses more on their friendship than finding The Doctor. It is at this point that the mysterious Victor Kennedy arrives to refocus their efforts.

Stylish and in no way shifty.

As Victor teaches the group new skills and gives them access to useful information to aid in their task, members start to disappear. Victor explains it away and everyone seems fairly quick to accept his stories. In fact, they seem to accept him into their midst far too readily. I'm a bit iffy about that bit. I try to explain it away to myself that these people are maybe not all the sharpest tools in the shed.

Elton is put to work getting close to Jackie Tyler in hopes of finding out more about Rose and The Doctor. Victor  reveals that Rose's Torchwood files were corrupted by a Bad Wolf virus, neatly explaining why they don't recognise her in the next story, and referencing two different season arc stories. In fact, this episode also contains the first reference to Mr Saxon, meaning it actually mentions three season arcs.

He's reading a story about a Crack in the Universe at Lake Silencio on Trenzalore

In the end, it is Elton's blunderous attempts at getting close to Jackie that save his life, with The Doctor and Rose showing up in the nick of time in order for Rose to give him a telling off. Victor, now revealed to be an... *sigh* ... Abzorbaloff, having absorbed the rest of LINDA, is attacking Elton when they arrive, and sets about trying to absorb The Doctor. The absorbed members of LINDA rebel against the Abzorbaloff, holding it's body back and giving away the secret of its defeat.

As the creature melts away, The Doctor sets up the ruination of the whole episode by saving the face of Elton's girlfriend Ursula on a paving stone. This in itself is not a huge issue, but someone decided it was a good idea to make a blow-job joke at this point. Totally unnecessary In-Who-Endo, especially considering the whole episode has its roots in competition on a kids TV show. If there's some sick-minded individual out there who wants to imagine what Elton and Ursula do for sexy-times, let them work it out for themselves. Nothing needed to be said about it. Without that line, this episode would have been interesting if slightly unremarkable. The fact that it is one of the last things we are left with drags this down so much it's not even funny.

5/10

Can we fix it?

A lot has been said about the fact that the monster for this episode was designed by a kid. In my opinion, the concept of the Abzorbaloff (if not it's name) is quite a sound one. It's actually quite scary to think of being absorbed into another creature and to maintain sentience for some time stuck on it's skin. No, I'm all for the monster here, although perhaps with a name change. 

Many people complain about the lack of Doctor and Rose, but again, this concept is sound. As I said, it's interesting to think about the people whose lives The Doctor touches as he whirls on through. We got a taste of it in the Season 1 opener Rose and seeing more of it is never a bad thing.

I think what irks me about this episode as a whole is the general unquestioning nature of the members of LINDA and the fact that Victor also begins absorbing them far too early. It's not really clear how frequently he needs to "feed", but I'd have thought he'd keep the LINDA members around as long as they were useful.

With this in mind, I'd have a little more dissent amongst the investigators before they started disappearing. Perhaps have one or two unrelated people go missing before that. A janitor, for example. The group could flag the disappearances with Victor, who offers to investigate them himself while the others stay on The Doctor. One of the group does some digging on the disappearances and takes this info to Victor who asks if they've shared it with the rest of the group. When they say they haven't, they then become the first of LINDA to be absorbed. Things start getting harder for the group and private complaints are met with more disappearances. This would then culminate in the mass walkout.

If we also remove that horrendous bit of sexual innuendo at the end, then I think all the loose ends would be tied up.

Review - The Satan Pit

We continue on with classic Sci-Fi survival horror as The Doctor opens The Satan Pit.

Season 2, Episode 9 - The Satan Pit

This episode picks up where The Impossible Planet leaves off, with The Doctor and Ida at the mouth of the pit and the rest of he company fleeing the newly possessed Ood. I think the crew's acceptance of Toby was a bit too quick though. It's a tough one, but I'd like to think I'd be wary of the guy. As it is we focus just on the physical threat of the Ood. The red-eyed menace starts off almost as another zombie horde, only with more tea-bagging.

I'll let you join the dots on that one.

As a threat, the Ood soon move past the "advance slowly and be creepy" phase and become a bit more of a fast swarm kind of threat. Once the group escapes into the tunnels, the parallels to Aliens really gel. Wave after wave of monsters scrambling unflinchingly forward through tight ducting into machine gun fire. I don't think I'm drawing a long bow there. I'm pretty sure the production team said they got inspiration for the base from the Nostromo too.

They're all around us, man!

The pit itself is just a flat black nothingness. There's something really awesome about this scene, The Doctor hanging there in the nothing, pontificating. I even liked the whole awkward message for Rose thing. It worked well.

"If you talk to Rose, just tell her... Just tell her... Oh she knows." 

Once The Doctor takes that leap of faith and lands in the lair of The Beast, we get some more exposition and a full look at our erstwhile enemy. After working out that The Beast is just an animalistic body lacking a mind, The Doctor chooses to destroy everyone rather than let it get free. Of course we get some rather convenient Deus Ex Machina as The Doctor stumbles across the TARDIS in time to escape and save the others from the now collapsing gravity well. We have to give The Doctor credit for making the hard choice here. He didn't know he had to live for the next episode.

Happy birthday to me... Wait, I'm only two?

The Doctor's lament at not being able to save The Ood seems a bit weak though. I know he can't cross his own time stream (unless he can) but surely he could have done something once he had the TARDIS. It somehow feels like a distinction was still made between the humans and the Ood, despite all of the equality subtext of this and the previous episode. I mean he managed to pick up Ida on the way. Why was she more important?

All up, the survival horror theme worked well, and this story is quite rewatchable for me.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Again, not really much to do here. It was a nice suspenseful episode that played out well. As I said, it was a bit talky, and the whole Doctor loves Rose thing could have not been there, but it wasn't as sappy or drawn out as it could have been.

The only minor tweaks I'd have made would be first to have the Ood all die when The Beast was destroyed. This would mean The Doctor wouldn't have had to drop a weak line about not being able to save them.

It would also have been good to bring in a bit of paranoia at the start when the team escaped into the ducts. This could either have been directed solely at Toby, or more broadly at the whole team. If The Beast had possessed Toby and the Ood, maybe he could take any one of them at any time. That would have made the escape through the tunnels just a bit more tense as they all worried about each other.

Not too much to add though because it's a solid episode.

Oh, and I just had to share this one. I did a double take at this point...

Vashta Nerada anyone?