TENTH DOCTOR
The Christmas Invasion
“When you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this. It is defended.” – The Doctor
Likes: There’s a good pace to the story since it’s smart to slowly introduce this new Doctor, it being the first time many watchers had experienced regeneration. The slowly returning translation leading to the reveal of the newly awakened Doctor is quite a good trick.
Dislikes: There’s a bit of a cheat in order to try to fit in the previously referenced Golden Age of Harriet Jones’ administration into the story but also having the Doctor ‘take her down’. It’s the start of some of the holier-than-thou moralizing of the Doctor that comes on a bit too strong throughout the run of the show.
New canon: Regeneration energy includes a ‘regrowth’ process
Interesting: Our first mention of Torchwood that will be ‘mystery’ for the run of this season
New Earth
“Arms, fingers, hair! Let me see! Let me see! Oh my God. I’m a chav!” – Cassandra as Rose
Likes: Nice costumes for the cat nuns. David Tennant gets to establish his character style more fully. Body switching is usually a bit of a tired device but it works fairly well here.
Dislikes: Seems a bit far-fetched that Cassandra didn’t actually die before. The dramatic ending doesn’t quite make sense—cures don’t ‘spread’ like diseases do!
Tooth and Claw
“Begin your tale, Sir Robert. There’s a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters.” – Queen Victoria
Likes: The best of the new series to this point. A wonderfully rich and clever story, great characterizations, very good graphic effects, nice direction and landscapes, believable tension and pacing, a truly clever resolution, and for once someone gets to chastise the Doctor. Rose gets to show her ingenuity as a companion. I love Rose’s “Where the hell have you been?” greeting to the Doctor. A great turn as Queen Victoria—from a classic DW veteran no less!
Dislikes: The screams at the beginning belie what we actually see later and seem a bit of a cheat just to make a good opening. It’s very frustrating to see the group waste the time given by the sacrifice of the captain by standing their gaping at the creature.
Interesting: The origins of Torchwood
School Reunion
“Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it’s a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends” – Sarah Jane Smith
Likes: On first watch, it was exciting to have the re-introduction of old companions Sarah Jane and K-9 (though on second watch the joke of her being like an old ex becomes kind of grating). Though dark and dramatic for no reason in the story, the Doctor revealing his identity to Sarah Jane is a very well done scene.
Dislikes: The graphics of the Krill are not good at all compared to the werewolf we had just an episode before. A hodgepodge of ideas and supposed threats from them that don’t add up. Silly explanation of the oil that helps resolve the situation. A lot less good of an episode if you ignore SJS’s return.
Re-introduced: Old companions and situations
New canon: Sarah Jane’s re-start fighting alien threats
The Girl in the Fireplace
“The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other.” – Madame de Pompadour
Likes: I really liked this episode the first time because of the hard sci-fi ideas: the Doctor appearing across the someone’s life at various times, the spaceship using up the crew for parts, etc.
Dislikes: On second watch, I disliked noticing the emphasis on the Doctor seeming to “fall in love” with Reinette—it’s ridiculous to think that he would abandon Rose and Mickey on the spaceship just to save her
Rise of the Cybermen
“This is the ultimate upgrade. Our greatest step into cyberspace.” – Lumic
Likes: While the focus of the episode is the return of the Cybermen (in a fairly decent sleek new format), I like the human touch in encountering the parallel dimension here—the inability of Rose and Mickey to control themselves from finding lost loved ones against the Doctor’s pleas.
Dislikes: I hate the attempted catchphrase “Delete”
New canon: New origin for the Cybermen
Re-introduced: Cybermen (originals mentioned)
Age of Steel
“A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts, lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive: people–ordinary, stupid, brilliant people.” – The Doctor
Likes: While the menace is shown nationwide, you can really feel the scare factor of the Cybermen more from tense walk of the Doctor and Ms. Moore through the tunnel when she dies. The Doctor’s subtle direction to Mickey via the security camera is nice.
Dislikes: The earbuds reference definitely now seems a bit dated but even at the time looked kind of ridiculous.
The Idiot’s Lantern
“Ordinary people are being struck down and changed, and the only new thing in the house is a television. Your television.” – Rose to Magpie
Likes: There a nice horror feel as we track the family’s fear over the grandmother upstairs. There are several moments of turned tables—by far the best is played out between the Doctor and the detective inspector with the gradual shift in their positions relative to each other across the desk.
Dislikes: There’s a choppiness to the beginning of the story like they skipped over several scenes. The creature’s cries of “Hungry” and references to itself as “The Wire” are obviously attempts to trademark it as a villain rather than fitting with its characterization in the story.
The Impossible Planet
“These are the words of the Beast. And he has woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise.” – Toby
Likes: There’s a lot of nice direction and emotion in the story, the slow possession of the archaeologist is well done and stylishly directed as well as other scenes that carry a sense of dread
Dislikes: Some of the cast are a bit oddly acted and the black hole physics don’t quite work
The Satan Pit
”I’ve seen fake gods and bad gods and demi-gods and would-be gods, and out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing, I believe in her.” – The Doctor of Rose
Likes: Some very well-done graphics of the creature. The final struggle where the Doctor seems to be put in an impossible choice is resolved because the creature didn’t think Rose would find her own way out.
Dislikes: The previous cliff hanger ends up being a cheat—nothing actually rose out of the pit.
Reintroduced: The Beast is likened to Azal in “The Daemons”
Love & Monsters
“But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker, and so much madder. And so much better.” – Elton
Likes: Nothing
Dislikes: Hands down the worst episode of the series for me to this point and even beyond. Is the awful monster the main problem? Well, it is bad but other episodes have had other bad creatures. No, it’s the format, tone, and even intent of the episode. It’s meant to have a laugh at the show and at its fans, almost daring us to not like it. Even deeper, this episode does several other irksome things. Without a focus on the Doctor, it instead gives us a group of people that it spends lots of time humanizing and personalizing in a way far beyond an average story just to have their deaths feel tragic—a little of that is fine for drama, but at a certain stage it’s sadistic. It wants to make us feel so bad. Moreover, by showing this crew tracking alien invasions and the Doctor, it just digs away at the ability to suspend disbelief that life would go on as normal for them.
Fear Her
“There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold.” – The Doctor
Likes: Most of the story runs well and is not the disaster usually noted. It’s actually a fairly good plot and reasoning overall. They moving drawings are actually great—I wished they’d featured that more and better.
Dislikes: People didn’t like the child acting but she’s supposed to be awkward (autistic?) and troubled so I don’t find it so bad; however, her whispered “possessed person voice” isn’t very clear and probably should have been done as a voice over instead. The end of the story is a big letdown as they try to have too many “amazing” moments rather than just resolve the story which would have probably made this a more accepted story. “Let’s have the entire Olympic crowd disappear and then just have everyone carry on as normal when they return. Ditto for the missing kids. Oh and we’ll have the Doctor disappear for no reason other than to run the Olympic flame.” Nevermind that this means they have to suddenly make Rose the one spouting technobabble explanations for how the drawing is still coming to life and figuring out what to do.
Army of Ghosts
“Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no life, no time. Without end. My people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell.” – The Doctor
Likes: I am not usually a huge fan of the “domestics” of the companions being on display (as became the norm for the new series), but Jackie and the Doctor’s withering exchanges here are fun (though I’m glad they had him be a bit sympathetic when explaining why the ghost can’t be that of her dad or he would have just seemed like a jerk). The Doctor’s not-so-subtle psychological pressure to get his way with the director is nicely done. I suppose the Daleks’ appearance was a good surprise though I wasn’t necessarily clamoring for a story to include both them and Cybermen like some people.
Dislike: As with every episode, a worldwide scale of invasion event and yet not to long later the world will return to normal?
Doomsday
“Sealed inside your casing. Not feeling anything ever, from birth to death, locked inside a cold metal cage. Completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream.” – The Doctor of the Daleks
Likes: The pace of the main story is actually better than I remember—it’s a fairly good suspense driven piece despite the hokeyness of the Cyberman vs Dalek plot. An unexpected surprise to have a surprise ending.
Dislikes: I hate all the flying Daleks. Rose not dying felt like a cheat the first time I watched it. I am less bothered by it now though I still consider the ending chance to say goodbye a cheat as well.
New Canon: The ‘background radiation’ soaked up by time travelers—and the explanation that Daleks can feed off it. A retrofit of the earlier Dalek story.
The Runaway Bride
“But that’s what you do. The human race makes sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars.” – The Doctor
Likes: Very well produced graphics and effects including the make-up for the main monster. Some nice sniping between Donna and the Doctor, one of a few stories where some of the silly humor actually enhances the episode.
Dislikes: A little bit of overacting for the Empress, silliness about draining the Thames, and I cringe at the TARDIS bumping along in traffic (though to be fair the old series under Troughton had instances of the TARDS in physical flight as well).
New Canon: Our first acknowledgement of the Doctor needing a companion to temper a darkness within him
Smith and Jones
“Judoon platoon upon the moon” – The Doctor
Likes: A good simple story so that the pace keeps up well. The ambivalence of the Judoon is an interesting character trait. A nice rapport between the Doctor and Martha except…
Dislike: I don’t like the implication that everything the Doctor does is a “test” especially if her realizing the air wasn’t being sucked out of the building equates to being ‘brilliant’. (Although to be fair, he seems to be observing her calmness under pressure.) Also, why doesn’t the Doctor regenerate?
Interesting: The first mention of Mr. Saxon’s name sets of things for this season’s Big Bad
The Shakespeare Code
“The mind of a genius will unlock the tide of blood.” – The Carrionite witches
Likes: Words written into a play bring about physical transformation
Dislikes: The cackling witches come off a bit silly. Shakespeare comes off a little too modern (and nothing like our image of him).
Gridlock
“Someone’s got to ask, because you might not talk about it, but it’s there in your eyes: what if the traffic jam never stops?” – The Doctor
Likes: The reveal of the city having died so suddenly and completely from the use of the mood enhancer and its attached virus is eerie and reminiscent of disaster sci-fi. I am also glad they wanted to re-use an older and more obscure monster like the Macra but…
Dislikes: …not if they were going to totally change them to the point that they are nothing more than the name and shape of the original with none of the backstory except an explanation that they’ve ‘devolved’. The plight of the drivers also doesn’t make sense—if they can get off at the exit into the undercity to kidnap Martha then why do they go back to the years of waiting in the car. Why does anyone? Why are the accepting of being stuck in the traffic? Meanwhile, the show implies it’s a group collectively ignoring their bad situation and that they hold to a false hope through faith to cover it—the fact that they use a real sacred song (divorced from its meaning) to demonstrate this is borderline offensive.
Reintroduced: The Macra; the description of Gallifrey
Daleks in Manhattan
“They survived. They always survive while I lose everything.” – The Doctor about the Daleks
Likes: I’m glad they tried a different time period (1920s) and something in the US setting. Some of the social issues brought up are nicely used in the context of the story (preying upon the poor, the equalizing nature of poverty, etc.)
Dislikes: There is lots of wooden acting and ridiculous accents that undercut what should be the seriousness of a Dalek story. The ‘pig men’ are just silly and unnecessary.
Interesting: An early Andrew Garfield!
Evolution of the Daleks
“My Daleks, just understand this. If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you.” – Dalek Sec
Likes: My first viewing of this story was clouded by disappointment with the previous episode and embarrassment at thing like flying Daleks and pig men–but overall it’s actually a well-paced story that touches on several important themes and builds step-by-step to a showdown and resolution. The Daleks’ brutal killing of the mayor recalls their earliest story where the Thal leader is shot down in the midst of offering peace. What disappointment the Doctor must feel at his one glimmer of hope that the Daleks could change being dashed. Dalek Sec being led in like a dog on chains is surprising and pathetic. I also really like the unexpectedness of the Doctor suddenly working to save Laslo when it seemed sure he would just add to the list of sacrificed victims.
Dislikes: There’s still a lot of regrettable acting in this that undercuts the good.
The Lazarus Experiment
“I swore I’d never face death like that again. So defenseless. I would arm myself, fight back, defeat it.” – Lazarus
Likes: I don’t like a lot in this one, but I guess it’s nice how the dialog plays around with incongruity of a relatively young man reminiscing about memories of the WWII bombings.
Dislikes: I only remembered the bad CGI monster and a naked Mark Gattiss making this episode unpleasant on first viewing. On second, I realize how badly paced this story is. The monster is defeated and the story seems to end and then oops starts again and is resolved but then oops starts again. They never can commit to the important point of whether Lazarus has given himself over to his monstrous side or not. Somehow tension doesn’t build even in the midst of a chase, the Doctor has ages to work on a trap in the lab, and you wonder what in the world the monster that was just behind him is doing in the meantime. Martha’s family comes of bad—Mom is way to possessively jealous for no reason and I am sure that Tish would not suddenly swoon over young Lazurus after he had just been an icky old man to her just minutes before. It makes her look exceedingly dumb and shallow.
42
“Here comes the sun.” – The Doctor
Likes: I love this episode—it keeps things moving and is full of tension. Martha has some great screams of anxious frustration. The Doctor gets to be tough and determined on one hand and in absolute agony barely hanging on in another. We see Martha starting to realize it is not all fun and games (though Gridlock did this as well). Wonderful dank sets and color and graphics. Well done extras
Dislikes: You have to ignore the physics a bit—or better yet just assume that countdown to “impact” is not with the sun but with the barrier of the last possible point where they can still escape the its heat and gravity. Also, I find the whole scene of Mr. Saxon’s team listening in a bit distracting from the story and it kind of undercuts the sadness of Martha calling to say goodbye.
Human Nature
“Something hidden. Right behind the eyes, something hidden away in the dark.” – Martha
Likes: An interesting idea for a novel that is converted fairly well into an interesting idea for an episode. The chaotic entry halfway in the story without us knowing what has happened actually adds positively to the feel of the story. Interesting to see the Doctor being not who we know him to be; actually, it’s rather frustrating–when he gives permission for the bully to beat the underdog it is incredibly disappointing. But we do get to see the other Doctors’ faces, the first step of tying back to the classic series. Yay!
Dislikes: I can’t accept that the Doctor would have dragged Martha back to a time where she has to face such racism and hardship. Why there?
Re-introduced: Old faces of the Doctor
New Canon: Chameleon arches and fob watches, perception filters
Family of Blood
“I’m John Smith. That’s all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love. Why can’t I be John Smith? Isn’t he a good man?” – The Doctor
Likes: For the most part, the absolute coldness and rabid determination of the Family comes off well in all their scenes. The little girl laughing at the ‘silly’ headmaster before killing him is especially eerie. The Doctor’s choice is a bit over-emotional but still is well played.
Dislikes: I’m not sure why Martha wastes time giving the Doctor so much choice to change back—just open the watch already! The ending with the Doctor as some powerful punisher is rather overdone and the implication that he hid away as a mercy to his enemies is ridiculous and not borne out by everything else shown in the episode. And what happened to the notion that the Family of Blood were all going to die naturally in a month anyway? Is the implication that the Doctor is keeping them alive to make them suffer? (Maybe we can explain it away as the fanciful idea of the Son.)
Blink
“Don’t turn your back, don’t look away, and don’t blink.” – The Doctor
Likes: It is a very well-written episode that peels out its plot at a perfect pace, turning it into both an intriguing mystery and suspenseful thriller, and is one of the best uses of the complexities of time travel in the whole series and introduces a new creature that will become iconic to the series. The DVD conversation scenes are great.
Dislikes: As good as it is, I don’t like that this gets counted often as the best episode of Doctor Who ever because it’s not at all representative of what the show is. In terms of nitpicks, if you listen to the whole of the Doctor’s side of the conversation of the DVD, it’s not as random or indecipherable as Larry’s reactions in the episode lead you to believe. There’s a pretty large chunk where he lays out an explanation of the problem, makes clear he’s reading a script someone has written, and more clues that people could have worked what was going on.
New canon: The Weeping Angels
Interesting:My first encounter with this story happened before I ever actually started watching the new series—I caught it on someone’s television in passing just on the scene of Sally and Larry in the house fleeing the angels and thought what a nicely done scary show and thus was totally shocked when the TARDIS suddenly appeared on the screen. It’s clear that it is a well-done episode since it could grab my attention without me knowing it was Doctor Who!
Utopia
“So perfect a disguise that I forgot who I am.” – The Master
Likes: I think the surprise return of the Master is pretty epic (I had it spoiled so I didn’t get the full impact unfortunately) and the scene of him being triggered in the background by all the specific words (‘Time Lords’, ‘TARDIS’, etc.) is very well done. I am very pleased that they even incorporated whispers of Anthony Ainley and Roger Delgado as a lead up to the reveal. Even though I don’t necessarily like the manipulativeness of it, the one little scene with Martha and Chantho bonding like giggling schoolgirls is a masterclass in creating character empathy that makes her death later seem so incredibly heart-wrenching.
Dislikes: This episode gets off on a bad foot from the start for me: the Doctor acting weird about Jack (explaining the reason later doesn’t excuse why he is so cruel about it), the silly visual of Jack clinging to the TARDIS, the ‘end of the entire Universe’ being a bunch of cannibalistic pointy tooth people and guys behind a padlocked fence. None of it fits the scale of 500 billion years in the future—why are there no aliens?
Re-introduced: The Master!
The Sound of Drums
“So, Earthlings. Basically, er, end of the world. Here come the drums!” – The Master
Likes: The pieces of the Master’s plan fall in place fairly well and it’s an impressive shot when the Toclafane appear. It’s also a pretty dramatic cliffhanger since there’s clearly no way out of the end of the world situation. But…
Dislike: Oh my God, why did they choose to make the Master so silly? Dancing, making silly faces. Yes, it’s supposed to show his madness. but it really just makes it impossible for me to take the episode seriously.
New canon: The Master likes a soundtrack to his evils plans! (Something that will recur in future episodes.)
Interesting: The Master’s appreciation of the Telletubies is obviously a callback to the Master fascination with the Clangers in “The Sea Devils”
The Last of the Time Lords
“Everything dying. The whole of creation was falling apart, and I thought, there’s no point. No point to anything. Not ever.” – The Master’s wife Lucy
Likes: This one is bleak and I’m never sure if I like it or not. There are good moments of false hope, disappointment, and plot twists galore. It’s also interesting that they acknowledge the trauma that all the characters face after having been manipulated by the Master—particularly his wife.
Dislikes: “The Doctor as Jesus” is cranked to 11 here. It just feels too earnest. And then it gets too preachy—forgive your enemies, no retribution, evangelizing the Doctor. Meanwhile, the Master as a boozing, sleaze-hound sleeping with multiple women just feels wrong. It all again makes it hard to say it’s an episode I enjoy even though the scope of it is pretty epic.
Voyage of the Damned
“Information: You are all going to die.” – Host
Likes: I have to admit, I very much liked this on re-watch. The first time I was left with rather a bad impression due to the obvious emotional manipulation of having certain affable and innocent characters die horribly, but I now recognize that it is actually a very good adventure tale modeled (quite purposefully of course) on disaster movies like the Poseidon adventure—including those bits of self-sacrifice and unexpected deaths. It’s an incredibly well-done and stylish set.
Dislikes: I still don’t really like the ‘people get stored in a matrix and can be saved’ notion implied, even if it doesn’t actually work. It kind of minimizes deaths in the show (and indeed later becomes a mocked critique of the show that no deaths are ever permanent). Of course, the silliness with the Queen in her nightgown waving to the Doctor is kitschy. The “I am the Doctor” moment that leaves his companions gasping in wonder is a bit much but not as bad as happens later in the series.
Interesting: I don’t know if it’s entirely intended but the idea of the Host robot servants turned killers does seem to evoke a throwback to “The Robots of Death” with some similarity in their blank faces.
Partners in Crime
“The fat just walks away!” -Adipose Corporation slogan
Likes: It worked better as a story for me on second watch—probably because I found it easier to ignore the aspects I don’t like below and concentrate on the structure. Definitely, the humor is high in this one with the Doctor and Donna missing each other by seconds over and over, but it doesn’t come off as too silly for that. The moment where Donna after insisting he quit dismissing her and explain the needs ends up much to his surprise having the solution is also well done. And what a surprise at Rose showing up!
Dislikes: It’s a fairly lite story since so much of it is Donna’s family backstory and her re-connect with the Doctor. This is one that I would be embarrassed for someone to catch halfway as their first episode with all the cute cuddly fat monsters running around and gross body humor. I hated Wilfred dancing a jig to watch Donna fly away in the blue box—the TARDIS just loses a lot of its majesty when they treat it like a hot air balloon flitting about that people can wave from. Yet another huge alien spaceship over London.
Interesting: There would never have been a reason to notice it on first watch, but I was surprised to see an Atmos sticker prominently displayed in a car window here. A nice foreshadowing but only in retrospect.
The Fires of Pompeii
“Every waking second, I can see what is, what was, what could be, what must not. That’s the burden of a Time Lord” – The Doctor
Likes: The scene of the auger and soothsayer suddenly having so much knowledge about the Doctor and Donna is done eerily well for the surprise that it is. Ditto for the reveal of the High Priestess of stone. The idea of the Pyroviles giving a vision to carve as circuitry in marble stone is pretty cool. Yet another focus on the Doctor not having all the answers to moral dilemmas—it’s impressive that Donna does not cower or stay quiet assuming that the Doctor knows best. Yet it’s also fairly telling that she comes to see the kinds of choices he has to make and empathizes by helping.
Dislikes: Ignoring that you can’t quite run around safely in the middle of a volcano (!), the rock creatures are a bit clunky and don’t feel super threatening. I could accept some of the silliness of the language interactions at the beginning but I rolled my eyes at the concluding ‘household gods’ joke.
Interesting: There’s a subtle nod to the Roman adventure of the Hartnell area
Planet of the Ood
“Humanity defines us, sir. We look to you for answers.” – Ood Sigma
Likes: While they explicitly parallel Ood servitude to slavery late into the story, they nicely set a platform for the comparison just by the use of specific words or ideas like breeding, prices, and the company’s caring of them ‘for their own good’. The Ood song of captivity obviously ties back to the songs of slaves as well, and it is no wonder the scene is so evocative when Donna can hear it. We definitely don’t feel sorry for all the people from the company that die given their treatment of the Ood. More than that, the pace of the story keeps things going very well. It’s amazing how full this story feels despite only being one episode. The pitiful group of caged Ood cowering is a powerful image.
Dislikes: I wasn’t such a big fan of the boss actually turning into an Ood. It seems a bit silly. I would have almost preferred if they had actually just been poisoning him!
Interesting: I do like that they tied the ‘Ood Sphere’ to the Sensosphere of the Sensorites
The Sontaran Stratagem
“These are toy soldiers. The playthings of children.” – Sontaran Staal referencing UNIT
Likes: There’s a lot going on in this episode—catching up with what Martha has been up to, a proper return for UNIT, Donna’s family story arc, a complex plot with lots of moving pieces, the return of the Sontarans—and it all works together well, especially since they give the space of this being the first of two parts. Martha is a great character here and it’s interesting to see her and Donna’s contrasting interactions with the Doctor.
Dislikes: I think I may have been turned off a little by ‘spoiled genius’ Luke Rattigan whining and getting so excited along side the Sontarans to the point of it being silly. I minded less on this re-watch though.
Re-introduced: The Sontarans are back and, knowing how silly they become in later episodes, this is a very good callback to their grand warrior tradition. I love that they have their traditional ball-shaped ships along side a new designed mothership.
Interesting: In mentioning Martha’s ‘weak thorax’, the dialogue makes an extremely subtle reference back to their first ever appearance with Sarah Jane in ‘The Time Warrior’!
The Poison Sky
“From this point on, the people of Earth fight back, and we show them. We show the warriors of Sontar what the human race can do.” – Colonel Mace
Likes: I don’t know if I just wasn’t paying much attention when I watched this one the first time or if I have gained a better sense of what makes for a good modern Doctor Who episode, but this one together with its first part are really, really good. There’s great pacing moving the story along the way as the tension builds and gets reset but with reasonable explanations–ie the release of the gas wasn’t immediately fatal but needs to reach a certain density. (And finally, a world catastrophe that can be swept under the rug by blaming faulty technology rather than everyone being aware aliens). There’s a good amount of suspense as to what the clone Martha is going to do and when. Most brilliant to me is the speech given by Colonel Mace and the show of force that follows. Taking back some of the agency of UNIT, they go from being seen as a joke by the Sontarans to responding with several innovative measures that help defeat them and give us a rousing rally-back speech. I truly had thought they were going to fail miserably to underscore the Doctor’s moralizing disapproval over guns and armies, so this was a nice twist that even the Doctor had to show some appreciation for. Indeed, it’s the third major ‘lesson’ tempering the Doctor’s supposed infallibility thus far this season.
Dislikes: The Doctor’s near self-sacrifice at the end seems a bit much—I don’t think that the Doctor really needed to personally offer a ‘choice’ to the Sontarans; he had already said himself that they would never stop.
Re-introduced: The Brigadier finally gets name checked
The Doctor’s Daughter
“Hang on, hang on. A second ago it was peace in our time. Now you’re talking about genocide.” – The Doctor
Likes: Until the cliffhanger at the last episode, I’d totally forgotten that we got another adventure with Martha—it’s nice to see her and Donna ‘travelling’ together. The oddness of multiple generations only equaling to seven days was one of the only things that stuck with me about the plot of this story. I do kind of like the design of the Hath. I also like how the Doctor matter-of-factly notes to a shocked Donna that he’s already been a father.
Dislikes: I was not a fan of this episode the first time, even from the title—the arbitrary designation of ‘daughter’ was used just to shock us. It really irritates me that they are basically trying to force a character into an unearned emotional position vis-à-vis the Doctor for some easy pathos. The allusions to the Doctor acting like a deadbeat dad that won’t recognize his illegitimate daughter but then growing to love her thus don’t come across as some clever parallel to me. I’m guessing others didn’t like it either since she was never mentioned again after flying off into space for adventure. I was also very sad that the poor Hath that got killed due to Martha’s overenthusiasm (but at least they show the emotional toll it takes on her.)
Interesting: It was already oddly meta that the actress playing the Doctor’s daughter was Georgia Moffet, the real-life daughter of the Fifth Doctor Peter Davidson. Then she went and fell in love with Tenth Doctor David Tennant and they married, meaning David’s wife in real-life had played his daughter in-show and his now father-in-law was someone he idolized in childhood.
The Unicorn and the Wasp
“You know about people. Their passions, their hope, and despair, and anger. All of those tiny, huge things that can turn the most ordinary person into a killer.” – The Doctor to Agatha Christie
Likes: I am a huge Agatha Christie fan so I guess I am more than willing to enjoy an episode full of hidden references and homages to her works and personal history—with even a little bit of ‘Clue’ thrown in. This is one of only a few episodes where an approach of camp and silliness actually enhances the story for me—the clunky dialogue full of title references almost wouldn’t work otherwise.
Dislikes: As for the actual plot of a man turning into the form of a giant wasp alien that impregnated his high-born British mother before she gave him away…..well, that’s a bit too ludicrous—or perhaps just icky.
Interesting: I could get every spoken title reference to Christie works very easily—but I definitely wasn’t thinking it through to the point as some online who noted that the Doctor here is literally “The Man in the Brown Suit”.
Silence in the Library
“Count the shadows. For God’s sake, remember, if you want to live, count the shadows.” – Library recorded message
Likes: River Song was definitely an interesting character at the start; it’s amazing to see somebody rattle the Doctor so much. (OMG, the scene with her stroking his sideburns as his just stares with big wide eyes!). There’s an nice energy to this first part from both River’s frenetic introduction to running in the dark to the creepiness of realizing “You have two shadows”. The image of a skull in a spacesuit is iconic now.
Dislikes: I was a little put off with the heavy hints that River was the Doctor’s future wife after we had just gotten past an episode with his ‘daughter’. It all seemed a bit too much, making the Doctor rather less enigmatic and more domestic, not to mention upending a lot of established DW history. (I guess it doesn’t seem quite as shocking now as so much more has been changed.)
Interesting: We of course associate “Spoilers” as River’s iconic line but the Doctor actually says this early on in the episode before he ever met her for the first time so maybe it actually starts with him!
Forest of the Dead
“If this is all a dream, whose dream is it?” – Donna
Likes: The mystery of what the little girl is and how her world relates to the real world is nicely built up over time. Also, Donna’s virtual world where she’s vaguely aware of the discontinuity of jumping between ‘scenes’ is well done—her cry of grief when her awakening makes her false children disappear is heart-breaking.
Dislikes: Again, they take things too far about cheating death—it’s a rather unbelievable leap to go from learning that a last few bits of neural relay get saved on the coms at someone’s death to the idea that they are somehow able to entirely recreate the entire person in a virtual space eternal life. It’s also not at all well-explained about what happened to Donna’s physical form during her time in the virtual world, especially since the face on the (very unattractively designed) answer station was supposedly real.
Midnight
“I’m glad you’ve got an absolute definition of life in the universe–but perhaps the universe has got ideas of its own.” – The Doctor
Likes: Everything with the eeriness of the copied voice and not understanding where things are heading does makes this episode very tense. And it’s a nice message of how ordinary people can be turned to evil acts in the midst of fear..
Dislikes: ..but it stills seems a bit far-fetched that they would turn that bloodthirsty that quickly. Or is it because the alien was stirring thing up by controlling their emotions? All that is not made clear. And it’s not particularly stressed enough here that the alien actually defeated the Doctor entirely. Though well-written, I’m also just not a huge fan of format changing bottle-episodes like this.
Interesting The Professor is played by none other than Doctor Patrick Troughton’s son David!
Turn Left
“Who’s going to listen to us? Refugees. We haven’t even got a vote. We’re just no one, Donna. We don’t exist.” – Sylvia Noble
Likes: An interesting use of ‘what-if’ (though I don’t really think the Doctor would have died without Donna there). I love the fortune teller cowering at the end realizing that she and the beetle got way more than they bargained for. They do a good job of conveying hopelessness through Donna’s mother with her total lack of make-up and blank stare. Indeed, the whole arc after the destruction of London–seeking relocation and shelter with others, searching desperately for scarce jobs, refugees without a political voice, those in power turning upon poor immigrants—is scarily real.
Dislikes: Despite the nice and rather serious storyline, I hate that this episode still comes off feeling like nothing but a greatest hits of the last season. And then it muddies things more by pulling in other spin-off media (see note below). Plus how in the world did Rose become a veritable genius with an understanding of time and science and all that? (And from a real-world perspective, something about Billie Piper’s performance just seems off.)
Interesting: The Time Beetle seems very much akin to the spiders of Meteblis in its ability to hang on to a host’s back without actually being there which would have been a wonderful call-back to link them. But unfortunately they took the route of making it part of “The Trickster’s Brigade” which I didn’t even get as a reference until looking it up and learning he was a major villain in the ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’.
The Stolen Earth
“A single, simple Dalek succeeded where Emperors and Time Lords have failed. A testament, don’t you think, to my remarkable creations?” – Davros
Likes: The shot of the planets in the night sky is beautiful as well as all the other views of the Medusa Cascade and the planets there. Very excited at Davros’ return (though highly disappointed that it was so understated—I would have much preferred a big reveal for that) and the use of Dalek Caan as the giddy Abomination with his wonderfully poetic rantings is quite good. Davros showing his sacrifice of his own flesh to re-grow all the Daleks is a great shocking visual as well as a nice explanation to re-set the Kaled genetics of the Daleks. I guess seeing the companions working together is heartening as well.
Dislikes: I wasn’t a huge fan of them bringing in all the characters from the spin-off series—it comes off as a bit desperately self-congratulatory. Not to mention it doesn’t quite make sense for Rose and Jackie to have become action heroes, Harriet Jones a technical genius, and more. Other minor quibbles: the silliness of the television personalities in the midst of worldwide catastrophe is not a commentary on human nature but rather just silliness that takes us out of the story, Harriet Jones’ ‘redemption’ just irritates me because it reminds me of the unnecessary moralizing that went along with her last story, and the retrofit of the Shadow Proclamation to not actually be a proclamation is just irritating.
New canon: The events of the Time War are ‘timelocked’ and can’t be revisited
Re-introduced: Davros!
Interesting: I appreciate the extremely subtle reference to the plans to move the Earth in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’. It even seems to suggest that it was somehow a failed attempt (in another timeline?) to accomplish the same goal as here using a different technology
Journey’s End
“Never forget, Doctor, you did this. I name you. Forever, you are the Destroyer of the Worlds!” – Davros
Likes: Davros is great in his usual suicidal megalomania. I love his moment of recognizing of Sarah Jane calling us back to ‘Genesis of the Daleks’.
Dislikes: Oh, that silly image of the TARDIS towing earth with sickeningly sentimental music as all the companions work together at the controls as the Doctor fawningly guides his ‘children’. Ugh. I suppose this was meant as a celebration of all of Tennant’s era but my goodness it’s overbearing. And again there seems to be no long term consequence from half the world being destroyed by a universe shift and attacks by Daleks—just people on earth yelling ‘whee’ as they are yanked back across space. This could have been such an amazing episode given the premise of Davros’ plan. Instead, it’s a mishmash of throwing a bunch of nostalgia and exceedingly wild ideas with the excuse of it being a clever big grand scheme. It’s just makes up a lot of rules about regeneration on the fly and a lot just don’t make sense. What the heck is the Meta-Crisis Doctor? If he has all the memories of the Doctor then what is it that he needs to learn from Rose? Or if the memories are only to the point the hand was cut off, how does he know everything about Donna and all the others? Is condemning Rose back to the parallel earth really necessary for his sake (and are things back to normal there or are all the stars still gone?) Why does it do what it does to Donna? Why do all her memories of the Doctor have to be wiped? And finally the moralizing—the Doctor’s shame at what the companions have become as they resourcefully figure out ways to confront and destroy Davros and the Daleks is so misplaced. The whole world and potentially reality itself are about to be destroyed; I think they’re allowed to respond in kind to save it!
The Next Doctor
“I am new…Logic and strength combined with fury and passion.” – Ms. Hartigan as the Cyberking
Likes: Being just one of a few specials for the whole year, this episode obviously has a bigger budget with richer costumes and sets (the scene in the workshop with children running up and down ladders all over made me realize the scale). Since rumors of David Tennant leaving were swirling at the time, it also played upon this well by making us not quite sure who David Morrisey’s character actually was—could he really be a future incarnation of the Doctor? They reel out the clues of what is really going on fairly well. There’s some nice imagery also—Ms. Hartigan in her red dress and parasol amidst the men in black at the grave for instance.
Dislikes: The ending ‘Cyber King’ is impressive as a graphic but it definitely doesn’t make sense that no one remembers it a hundred years later which the show just covers over with a “yeah, strange that”. That attitude fits this whole era of Doctor Who—let’s have a big, world changing event with no consequences. The ‘Cybershades’ are weird and maybe even a bit interesting but not explained much at all and we never see them again.
Planet of the Dead
“Because that planet out there—all three suns, wormholes and alien sand—that planet is nothing. You hear me? Nothing, compared to all those things waiting for you. Food and home and people.” – The Doctor
Likes: Again a big budget means a nice landscape for filming, in this case a huge impressive desert. The costumes for the human-fly aliens are also well above average for the same reason. As for the story, it’s a fairly succinct tale with a satisfying conclusion. It’s interesting how they keep up the menace of the approaching ‘storm’ by having the one character being able to feel it psychically—there’d be no sense of tension for the story if she wasn’t there. Though there’s a bit of intended silliness with the professor, I feel like UNIT again comes off looking fairly competent here. Definitely fun to have the captain exult at there finally being aliens that bullets actually kill.
Dislikes: Many aspects of the story do feel a bit contrived, but the only thing that really bothers me is the hokeyness at the end with Lady de Souza getting away in the flying bus.
Re-introduced: The Doctor name checks the giant robot (Of all his memories of things with UNIT, that’s the first one that comes to mind?)
The Waters of Mars
Likes: A well-produced sci-fi horror episode with some fairly impressive practical effects in the use of water. Right away the creepy factor sets in by us seeing the first victim shaking horribly in the background as the other character chatters away unnoticing. Seeing the Doctor imagining the obituaries of each crew member as he meets them (all with the same date) is a fairly evocative visual foreshadowing that adds to the tension as well. The pace moves along at a surprisingly breakneck speed—you can feel the palpable helplessness as escape plan after escape plan falls apart.
Dislikes: I still don’t think Adelaide’s immediate step of suicide makes sense—why should she be so convinced that her death is necessary when she’d only just heard about it from the Doctor a little while before and now he’s telling her never mind? Even if she thought it was necessary, it would have been more natural for someone to just hide away and let people think she was killed on the Mars base. (In fact, her suicide at home seems like it would leave a very different legacy.) The whole narrative is a bit unclear—some of the news articles that briefly flash by at the end seem to imply some mystery but they also confirm that the other two survivors explained everything that happened so it’s not the tragic event that inspired so many. It’s all a bit of a muddle that ruins the story for me. In terms of minor quibbles, the scene with the Doctor souping up the Gadget robot and thereby comically making the controller shake is just too slapstick for being the midst of a fairly serious episode.
Interesting: The Ice Warriors get name checked
The End of Time (Part 1)
“It is returning, and he is returning, and they are returning, but too late. Too late. Far too late. He has come.” – The Elder Ood
Likes: The big budget goes to some nice direction this time—there’s a great establishing shot when Wilfred walks in the church with him framed by the memorial to war heroes that both underscores and foreshadows his themes in the story. It also allows for some bigger stars (Richard Chamberlain, anyone?) and obviously a lot of special effects as well (though I wasn’t pleased with the direction of that as noted below). At least the Master’s ‘death’ from before gets explained as just a clever escape. And it was admittedly cool to suddenly see the Time Lords in their collared robes at the end.
Dislikes: I wanted to try to come in with an open mind on second watch of this episode hoping that I would see something better but there is no way to overlook the absolute silliness of it—the super Master blasting off into the sky and leaping buildings in a single bound? The sight of the Master in ill-fitting suits and dresses giddily waving at himself? The bobble-head change of the populace is not an impressive effect to me and even the supposed horrific bit of the Master eating people (?) and glowing like Skeletor just comes off as over the top acting. The movie-like narration does not fit with the Doctor Who style in my mind either.
The End of Time (Part 2)
“That’s how I choose to remember them, the Time Lords of old. But then they went to war. An endless war, and it changed them right to the core.” – The Doctor
Likes: The second half of this story fares better by comparison to the first—the Time Lord council working to escape their ‘time lock’ and in a sense ‘creating’ the Master, the site of Gallifrey in ruins and looming in the sky, even the tension about what will happen to Donna—are all much more dramatic and impressive than the previous story’s silly ridiculousness. Even though the green alien scientists are silly, you can’t help but cheer when the one catches the Master by surprise as the Doctor smirks and sees it coming. The nice direction continues—in the very last scene as we see the Doctor standing sadly by TARDIS after Donna’s wedding, the shot incorporates the cemetery gravestones in the foreground below him emphasizing the deathlike feeling of his regeneration.
Dislikes: There’s still a lot of unnecessary moralizing–the Doctor making a huge gesture about refusing to even carry a gun, yet it’s clearly shown later that it has other uses besides killing which he should realize. (But I’m glad that Wilfred at least calls him out on his priorities—telling him not to dare to put his supposed morality in saving the life of the Master above saving the entire human race.) Plus the Doctor’s ‘final temptation’ moment (venting his stifled feelings in a debate as to why he should save Wilfred) just doesn’t ring true to what we know of the Doctor. The ending montage of all the previous characters and monsters from across the RTD era is just self-indulgent as is making regeneration into a long and unnecessarily drawn-out process. Plus a lot doesn’t make sense—the companions seem to know that this is the Doctor saying goodbye before his ’death’ but how would they know? Is the Doctor changing events by saving Martha and Luke’s lives? Why did Martha marry Mickey all of a sudden–what happened to her other fiancée that she loved so much? Does having them has bad-ass freelance fighters fit either of their arcs at all? It’s all so unnecessary. It would have been much better to explain more about Rassilon and how he came to be apparently resurrected (since we know his history as an ancient Time Lord not their current leader) and even more importantly give us an explanation about who the mysterious woman was instead of leaving that a big plot hole never addressed again!
New Canon: The Doctor disappears with ‘the Moment’ which we will of course see much later.
Re-introduced: The Time Lords and their robes. Rassilon!