The Sontaran Stratagem (2008)

Well their back and for the first time in nearly 25 years. Doctor Who has had a tendancy in the past of putting all their eggs into one basket and by that I mean putting all the action into the first part and hoping that carries into the second part, they seemed to be learning their lesson in the last series. The Sonataran Stratagem features the return of Martha after her stint in Torchwood. The new and improved Martha seems a lot more confident and the scene where The Doctor sees Martha for the first time since 29.13 – Last of the Timelords was well written and well acted by the trio. I liked the comedy that Tennant added to the scene thinking that Donna and Martha were going to swabble over him like Rose and Sarah Jane did in 28.3 – School Reunion. It was well done though I didn’t quite like the ‘You hug him and you get a paper cut!’, it then lead well into the main action. The return of the most useless military organisation was also a welcome addition. It started so well showing them that they could be a force that was well organised and had soldiers that could actually take control of a situation but boy did that disappear quickly.

The Sontaran’s were really good in this story and it was quite interesting to see that Sontarans have goatees. The idea that Sonatrans are actually cloning people is something that has never been explored in Doctor Who before which is kind of weird when you think about it. The look of the Sontaran is quite nice as it is quite colourful compared to previous adventures the idea that they have some sort of lackey seemed quite unlike Sontaran behaviour but worked quite well in setting up the story. The cliffhanger was the most dramatic that has ever happened in Doctor Who (well probably the second after 29.11 - Utopia). Sontarans chanting made them seem more
menacing and made them fell more dominant.

David Tennant was on good form as the Doctor as usual, his scene with Donna when he thought she was leaving him and then he realised what was going on was amusing and added a bit of light relief. Catherine Tate was continuing to improve as Donna and her first meeting with Martha showed how far she has come since The Runaway Bride. Freema Agyeman’s return to the show was a welcome addition to the story and the Martha we see in this story is not only different from her time in Series 29 but even different from her Torchwood run. Its nice to see that the infatuations with the Doctor have all but gone. Bernard Cribbins who I think is one of the best casting decisions done by the BBC Wales team was brilliant as usual as Donna’s granddad, when he realised that the man that Donna had gone away with was the same man he saw at Christmas it seemed as if RTD had been planning this from the beginning (if we didn’t know what we learnt from the first DWC of the new series).

Whilst it isn’t the best episode of the series so far it is still a damn fine episode and makes me confident that The Poison Sky will make a fine second parter in what has been a strong start to the 30th season of Doctor Who.

Planet of the Ood (2008)

The third episode is another visually stunning story that mixes well with a very interesting plot. Keith Temple's debut script for the series battles between bringing back a familiar character and deals with a moral issue.

The Ood who first appeared in the 2006 two-parter The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit is the first creature from the new series to return (apart from The Daleks). The Ood were used in an emotional yet tense way. We had learned in The Impossible Planet that the Ood are servants and presumed that they are born this way. We learn in this episode that they are born free but are converted into being slaves. This is a real sad revelation but highlight (and this might be the writers intention) the horrors of slavery. When the Ood's eyes turn red you wondered what was causing this cause in The Satan Pit it was the Devil but he 'secondary' stage was truly shocking. The most shocking scene though in this episode if not in Doctor Who history was when Klineman Halpan ripped of his skin to reveal he had been turned into an Ood.

Catherine Tate is progressing well, she was only annoying in the TARDIS but after that she showed the same positive points that she displayed in The Fires of Pompeii. One of my favourite scenes was when she asked the Doctor to give her the chance to hear the Ood singing. It was truly a sad moment and throughout the episode she tried to convince the Ood to be free, it wasnt over bearing but was subtly done. David Tennant was very good in this story but seemed to me be in the background of things because The Ood and Tim McInnery stole the show.

Tim McInnery is perhaps best know for starring in the Blackadder series and was superb in this episode. He was like a slave master and whenever he was on the screen he just seemed to be enjoying himself and find it quite easy. The Ood were well received and well liked back in the 2006 two-parters but in this they were propelled to one of the best non-Dalek/Cybermen monsters in Who history.

Great plot, great special effects and great scenes. This story continued the good start to the season and with the Sontaran two-parter yet to come the series can only get better

The Fires of Pompeii (2008)

Episode 2 saw a nice improvement on the opener. Not in terms of enjoyment but more in terms of quality of script. Fires of Pompeii has to be one of the most ambitious stories that has ever been attempted for new-who and it pays off. With visually stunning settings and special effects Fires of Pompeii is the best historical story just ahead of Tooth and Claw and The Shakespeares Code. When they made the Shakespeare Code they managed to make it look realistic by filming in The Globe Theatre and in streets around Warwick. This helped create the atmosphere for the story which is why it went down well its this attention to detail that helped Fires of Pompeii. They filmed on the sets that were used for the HBO/BBC drama 'Rome'. Being a fan of that series they looked really familir but the sets and location only tell half the story.

The plot was a really good one because in a way there were two strands. The first being of the sisterhood and the rock creature taking over the world and the second was the conflict between the Doctor and Donna on whether to change history by telling people about the impending doom or not. Its the latter that stood but to me the most after the episode had finished.

Its always been a big dilemma in Doctor Who 'Should the Doctor change history to help people survive'. Well you start to enter a grey area on this ground because if the Doctor can then why doesn’t he go back to Gallifrey and save the Timelords? The scene between Donna and the Doctor in the TARDIS was a well written and well acted moment. It was at that point that Donna became a proper companion to me. She stood up to the Doctor and made him stand up to his decisions. The fact that Donna doesn’t fancy the Doctor or admire him though that may change.

There was one part of this episode that I thought let it down. The first was the Donna was slightly annoying in the first part of this episode. She did bear a horrible resemblance to her character Lauren the Teenager and I did start to feel sorry for David Tennant for being lumbered with Tate. About halfway through the episode she just stopped being annoying and became really good and lets hope she continues with this. A very good episode that was let down by an annoying Donna in the first 25 minutes but great special effects and a great plot.

Fragments (2008)

The penultimate episode of the series is quite an unusual one to do but is the most revealing episode out of the two series. The simple plot was that the team were investigating an abandoned building but there are explosive devices and they go off trapping the team in various precarious positions. This meant that we got to see how all five members of Torchwood ended up working there. Jack’s was quite interesting and so was Gwen’s whilst Ianto’s was entertaining and the scene where Jack and Ianto are trying to capture the terradactyl was humorous. Tosh’s was predictably average whilst Owen’s was perhaps the most emotional, the fact that he actually was in love with someone was shocking at first and then the revelation that his fiancé had an alien growing in her head was also a nice twist.

The moment that I thought was really tense was where the window glass was about to fall and decapitate Owen. With this series being unpredictable it was perfectly believable that Owen was going to be half the man he use to be. The biggest question that had to be answered and was brilliantly hidden behind all the action was who planted those bombs and why, the answer was revealed to be Captain John and he had Jack’s brother which was totally shocking.

A brilliant episode and a fantastic climax making me look forward to the season finale.

Partners in Crime (2008)

Well 467 days after she last appeared in Doctor Who, Catherine Tate returns to Doctor Who except she is going to be a proper companion and go down in Doctor Who history. The main concern I had was that the producers were not going to change the character of Donna but after watching Partners in Crime I think they have done the right thing and toned he annoyance down. The whole episode had a comedy feel to it which is fine as long as it doesnt take control of the whole episode which it seemed to in New Earth but didnt in this case. The main baddie was Miss Foster who seemed very Supernanny and she was quite convincing as a baddie. The thing that annoys me in some Doctor Who stories is what is their reason for being there and the situation that they are in not being explained clearly enough but it this case the explanation was satisfactory.

David Tennant was as usual on good form in this episode and his reaction at seeing Donna did remind me on the Fifth Doctor’s reaction to Tegan coming back to the team in Arc of Infinity. The scene where he sees Donna again for the first time was a really funny moment and well played by Tennant. Catherine Tate was also good in this story, there were glimpses of the old Donna from the Runaway Bride but on the whole it was a different Donna that appeared. Her relationship with her mother was well played but it was with her grandad that was most hearwarming. Wilfred Mott had appeared in Voyage of the Damned and according to Doctor Who confidential wasnt supposed to appear but due to the sudden death of Howard Attfield as Donna’s Dad. Bernard Cribbins is a familiar face to Doctor Who fans as he appeared in the 1966 movie Dalek Invasion of Earth 2150AD was very good in his scenes with Donna and the moment at the end of the episode was well acted, it showed that he wasnt angry or jealous of Donna but happy for her and that was a nice thing in this episode.

The Adipose were curious creatures as they seemed not really to have a purpose other that waiting to go home yet when they were walking in the streets seemed quite menacing and that must have been the plan for Russell T Davies. The most shocking thing was the appearance of Rose, last seen in the 2006 season finale she appeared for a few moments before vanashing. Was she a ghost or is she able to jump between worlds which we were told was impossible. I have to say that I was to bemused to think about that at the moment and it was until afterwards that I wondering how this would pan out in future episodes. Whilst it wasnt as good as Smith and Jones it was far better than New Earth and I am far more confident about the series with Donna in it that before I watched this episode.

The Dark Husband (2008)

The Dark Husband is an unusual release. This story has been written by David Quantick who I always think is a bit of a strange man with a strange sense of humour. I put all of this to one side and eagerly anticipated the arrival of the first Seventh Doctor adventure of 2008. The first story to feature the Seventh Doctor, Hex & Ace since February 2006’s Nocturne and I after I finished listening to it I couldn’t quite decide what to make of it. I thought it was an interesting idea but it just didn’t seem to have any pace or urgency about it. I found myself starting to lose interest at several times during this story, that makes it sound like I hated it but that’s not the case cause there were several entertaining elements. The idea that Ace and The Doctor were going to get married and then Ace and Hex was quite fun and also the characters were interesting also there were several little jokes dotted around the four parter which considering its author was to be expected and appreciated.

Slyvester McCoy was very good as the Doctor, his whole character was well suited to what was going as he always seemed to be the ball with what was going on and at times just a step behind it. McCoy has had some sort of a revival in form recently with a strong line of stories (except for Valhalla) where he can take control of stories. Sophie Aldred was equally as entreating as Ace and her relationship with Hex continued to shine and becoming the best combination now that Peri & Erimem have departed, saying that though if Erimem was still in it Ace & Hex would have been level. I think that as Aldred has matured over the years, so has the character of Ace and Aldred is able to reflect that. Philip Olivier was also good in this story and his enjoyment of marrying Ace was quite enjoyable. Olivier is a very good actor however he is never given a good enough run of episodes to show what the character of Hex can do. He has been in the show since 2004 and I don’t really think he has stood out perhaps like Erimem or Evelyn have.

The star of the story was Danny Webb who appeared in the 2006 two part story The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit. He according to Wikipedia plays three characters (Ori, Irit & Tulin). If that’s true then the voices were superb and helped get me through the story. Its really quite a neat trick to be able to do multiple voices and not sound the same. Hopefully we will get another performance from Webb that just has him playing one role. Katarina Olsson makes an appearance in a Doctor Who play that doesn’t feature Paul McGann in anyway. That somehow seems wrong but at the same time she is playing something that isn’t The Headhunter which can only be a good thing. She plays The Bards along with Sean Connolly and together they create a glorious impression of a monster that you just wouldn’t want to bump into in a dark alley.

Knowing what kind of person David Quantick is (by watching TV of course) I was expecting a slightly different kind of story and that is what we got but the only that let this story down was that there just wasn’t any pace to it. It felt that the story was just dragging and that’s a shame because we have had to wait a long time for a Seventh Doctor/Ace/Hex story and this was ultimately a bit of a let down. I think it’s a brave effort and one that should be applauded for that point alone however from an entertainment standpoint it just didn’t grip me like a normal Doctor Who story should. Nicholas Briggs directed this one amazingly. I say amazingly because in the past he has directed some truly superb stories and this one just seemed flat and uninspiring. I don’t know if Briggs was just having a bad day but this wasn’t Brigg’s finest hour (and a bit!)

It was unfortunate that this story came after the truly stunning The Condemned because its very obvious to the extent of quality here and at the end of the day it isn’t a story I will remember with fondness

Exit Wounds (2008)

Over the previous 12 episodes one thing that has impressed me above all was how consistantly good the episodes have been. None of them are what I would call poor which isnt what I could have said of Season 1. Following on from the previous episode which was brilliant I have to say that this finale is the icing on a huge cake. I like the character of Captain John and it was nice to see him in this episode. It was quite a surprise that he was being used by Jack brother and also it was shocking to see the death of Tosh and for the second time this series Owen.

There were several things that I liked about this episode, the first was that Jack was buried in AD 27 Cardiff but ended up in a box in Torchwood. This was explain in a really good way after being found by the staff of the 1901 Torchwood. I thought the deaths of Owen and Tosh were played really well and by the end of the episode I thought that it was one of the finest episodes of the entire series.
All the action was well done and none of it was soppy drivel. The episode was a fittng climax to a series that has delivered quality episodes time and time again.