The Parting of the Ways (2005)

The resolution of this episode is the starting point of where it really gets going. Over the course of the next 45 minutes the story manages to get quite a lot done. I liked how after all the Bad Wolf references throughout the series it is given time to explain that Rose put them there. The Doctor intends to destroy the Daleks but it will wipe out every form of life, so to try and protect Rose the Doctor cons her to go in the TARDIS and sends the TARDIS and Rose back to Earth. Rose then spends a lot of time moping around and then noticing the words BAD WOLF in massive letters on the ground and that kicks of the events which lead to Rose seeing into the heart of the TARDIS like Margaret did in the previous episode. This then sets off the chain of events which force the Doctor to regenerate.

Due to the ham fisted way that the news of Eccleston's departure was announced it kind of ruined any shock and surprise about his regeneration. There were some news reports saying that the BBC were forcing Eccleston to reshoot his final scenes. Who knows whether they were true it doesnt make any difference that when I was watching the final moments of Eccleston's time on the show I didnt feel sadness or shock just disapointment that the story was ending on effectivley a low note. What I did feel though is that the last 10 minutes or so were very action packed. With Jack exterminated by the Daleks due to what has happened to Rose it some how brings Jack back to life and as we learn in Torchwood, it makes him invincible. But at the time no one knew that and it was just a shock to have someone who we thought was dead but then comes back to life only to be left on the game station by the Doctor.

The actual regeneration scene was the most visually stunning that there has ever been. It certainly beats the regeneration of Colin Baker into Slvester McCoy. Even know 5 years on it still looks good. The last words of the Ninth Doctor era were nice. They were heartfelt and summed up this whole series. "You were fantastic....and you know what....so was I". Yes Christopher, you certainly were. The brief glimpse we got of David Tennant's Doctor didnt seem to give too much away except that despite being played by a Scot, the Doctor was going to remain English sounding. As a two part story it was the finale it should have been. It had Daleks, darama and a surprising departure for what was portrayed as a proper companion. The shows first gay kiss didnt seem to get many people annoyed. Not the fact that it was man on man but that the Doctor was involved at all. I can remember the drama caused when McGann snogged Ashbrook in the TV Movie. Eccleston was fantastic as the Doctor and it was a shame he didnt want to do any more because I think if he had done another series of two then he could have gone down as one of the best.

Born Again (Children in Need) (2005)

The Children in Need Special is the bridge between The Parting of the Ways and The Christmas Invasion which at this time was about six weeks away. We get to see all the silliness from a post regeneration so that when The Christmas Invasion begins we can start properly. It gives the 21st century audience a chance to see what happens when the Doctor regenerates and more importantly what Rose's reaction to the regeneration. The comforting that the Doctor has to give to Rose to convince her that he is still the Doctor is essentially the same as he is doing to the audience.

The Doctor starts off perfectly normal and I thought maybe it wasnt going to be a normal regeneration and by that I mean not well at all. Then it all starts going wrong and the Doctor is slowly going man and we get a glimpse of the Doctor that Tennant is going to be. As the special comes to an end the TARDIS is hurtling towards the Powell Estate on Christmas Eve and then we are left with the now traditional words.

"Doctor Who will return in...."

Its weird seeing David Tennant at this early stage of his run. Obviously he becomes more grounded and becomes the geeky long coated wearing timelord we all know and love but then it seemed quite strange. I hadnt quite made up my mind about him at that point but I thought that there was potential. Billie Piper did a good job playing a confused Rose, not fully trusting what see saw in front of her.

At just over seven and a half minutes there wasnt a great deal that could be done. Given that about a minute was a reminder what we effectivley had was a five minute teaser. The only issue I have with the whole thing (and you cant really have a go considering it was for charity) is that the lighting was wrong. It just felt that they couldnt be bothered to light it properly and create the same effect that they got in POTW.

That said as a teaser it was nice to see and would lead in nicley to the Christmas Invasion.

Boomtown (2005)

Boomtown is the penultimate story of this season. It's a cheap episode but as a result we get a character driven episode but unlike Fathers Day this story has a lot to do with the Doctor. Set in Cardiff just above the rift that was created after The Unquiet Dead. This story sees the return of Margaret Blaine who somehow survived the missile that struck Downing Street in World War Three. It's not clear how much time has passed since that story but somehow that Blaine is now mayor of Cardiff. It's quite an imaginative story. The Slitheen clearly cost quite a bit of money and to fully justify the cost it was important to give the costume another airing. They seem to have made some modifications to the costume because it does seem different.

The scenes with the Doctor and Margaret in the restaurant were the best bits of this story. The Doctor has a dilemma because of his stance over death yet he knows all the death and destruction that Margaret and her family have caused means that she should face justice. But will the Doctor be willing to send someone to their death? It's a dilemma that is explored in great depth in this episode. I thought a great argument that Margaret had was she let someone live. The Doctor basically says just because she let someone live doesn’t make her a good person, just that she was in a good and generous mood at the time. The other plot that was running through the story was that as Mayor of Cardiff, Margaret was building a nuclear power station so that it could blow up and she could ride on some futuristic surf board and ride out of Earth. From the moment the rift starts to go crazy that is when the proper action kicks in, before then it was all about the personalities but now it was the crazy stuff. The scene in the TARDIS where the console opens up and Margaret looks into the white light was a surprising moment for me. In all the years I had been watching the show it never occurred to me that the console could do that. That might have something to do with I still think of the console as that grey cobbled together console from the 1980's instead of this wonderful vibrant one we get today. In the end the dilemma that the Doctor has about sending Margaret to her certain death is taken out of his hands because as she looked into the white light it reverted Margaret back to an egg. All's well that ends well. A sensible ending which wasn’t obvious but didn’t seem stupid.

As she doesn’t have to battle with the other actors playing Slitheens, Annette Badland is allowed to shine in the role. I've seen her in a few other dramas and I think that she is a wonderful actress. The chemistry between Badland and Eccleston was wonderful and amongst the dramatic moments there were some comedy bits which were well acted between the pair. Billie Piper and Noel Clarke had some good scenes and the tension in the relationship between Rose and Mickey. Mickey is slightly resentful against the Doctor and that plays out brilliantly. It's John Barrowman who has the least to do. His time will come. Boomtown is a story that probably doesn’t look like much on paper but due to the writing of Russell T Davies and the acting of this very small cast it works and becomes a nice solid episode. Credit to everyone involved. Now bring on the final two episodes of Christopher Eccleston's run.

Bad Wolf (2005)

So it comes down to this. The two part finale to see out the Ninth Doctor, after the ham fisted way that it was announced that Christopher Eccleston wouldn’t be the Doctor in series 2. The end to the first full series of Doctor Who in 16 years had a lot riding on it. After a series of largely enjoyable and exciting stories it was important to give the Eccleston era a good send off and it was down to Russell T Davies to make sure that this happened. The story starts off a bit abruptly. The Big Brother theme music is playing whilst the Doctor wakes up in the diary room. The last line before the theme tune sums it up "You have got to be kidding me!". The Doctor, Rose and Jack arrive on Satellite 5 some one hundred years after The Long Game. Except it turns out that due to his action the Earth isn’t as it should be. The Satellite is now a game station where there is every conceivable game. The Doctor is stuck in Big Brother, Rose is on The Weakest Link whilst Captain Jack is on What Not to Wear.

There's a clever use of names in this story. For the Big Brother game there is Davina-droid (voice by Davina McCall - host of Big Brother). For the Weakest Link there is the Anne-Droid (voice by host Anne Robinson) with Trine-e and Zu-Zana (voiced by hosts Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine). The games are all quite grim because if you lose then you’re killed. This is supposed to create a sense of purpose to get out of the situations that the regulars find themselves in. There is a shocking moment when it appears that Rose has been killed by the Anne-droid whilst trying to escape. There is a short moment when you are suppose to believe that Rose has been killed and this prompts the Doctor and Jack to go to Floor 500. This is where they meet the Controller who when I first saw her I actually thought that it was quite dark and graphic for a show that would be seen by kids.

There was one moment that I thought was a bit too far was the way that Jack was flirting with Trine-e and Zu-Zana before ending up naked. A naked man (even if it’s just the backside we see) is not something I particularly want to see in a prime-time Saturday evening show or a Doctor Who. Totally misjudged. That ties in with my problem with this story. There is a lot that does seem right in this story. All the business in the games was kind of secondary and it was only once they got out that the story got interesting. It was like RTD was holding back the main action until part two and trying to spend as long as he could with the games and going to floor 500. The term Bad Wolf had been used in pretty much every episode of this series. To this date, some five years on I don’t fully understand the logic of it. RTD must understand it but I don’t. The cliffhanger was very good, I loved the defiant speech that the Doctor gave to the Daleks and the final images of hundreds if not thousands of Daleks. One of the finest images that I can recall in Doctor Who. Sent chills down my spine and when an episode does that then it's perhaps the finest positive I can make.

Project Destiny (2010)

Well it’s been 15 months since The Angel of Scutari and as if that wasn’t exciting enough then we have the return of Nimrod in the Project Series. The first story was Project: Twilight in 2001 featuring the Sixth Doctor and that was wonderful because it was dark and grim. Then in 2003 we get Project: Lazarus which featured the Sixth and Seventh Doctors in only the second multi Doctor story that Big Finish had done. This one was far better because it was darker and grimmer than Twilight. This story was like the previous Project stories written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright.

The Doctor, Ace and Hex return to St Garts (the hospital that the Doctor and Ace first met Hex) to try and save Hex's life. What they come across is a deserted London where the only people around are the contaminates and the people who work for a new version of the Forge. The B-plot is the deserted London but the main story is about Hex. The Doctor knows that Hex's mother is Cassie who the Sixth Doctor met in Twilight and saw killed in Lazarus. The majority of the story is built on waiting for the truth to come out and to see what Hex's reaction will be. What does help crank up the tension are the scenes with Nimrod or Sir William Abberton and the Doctor. He is nice as pie to Hex and spends most of the story acting like Hex's best buddy. Abberton knows that Hex doesn’t know the truth and the Doctor hasn’t told him. Abberton uses this against the Doctor before revealing all to Hex. The latter part of the story is now about Hex wanting to give his mother the burial he deserves. But this happens just as the Criton building is about to be destroyed. With Hex disillusioned and with the truth out, Hex walks off into the sunset. If that is the last time we ever hear from Hex then it has to be the worst ending for a companion since Leela decided she was in love and stayed on Gallifrey. However since there has been a big thing made about whether it is his last story I will have to reserve that comment for the final story Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge in November. I did like the link to the next story when Aristedes notes that the seal of Rassilon above the door of the TARDIS matches the symbol on a casket in Nimrod's Aladdin cave of goods. This leads in Death in the Family.

The problem with this story is that as I was listening to this I was wondering why it wasn’t grabbing my attention. It just didn’t seem to have any of the magic of the previous two stories. The one thing that stood out from the previous two stories was the darkness and how unlike a Doctor Who story it got whilst it felt comfortable. This one just felt like a normal Doctor Who story but with an apocalyptic setting. The story couldn’t quite make up its mind what it wanted to be. The writers clearly wanted to continue the Project story but seemed to have to shoe-horn the whole Hex's mother story. As a result all the darkness had to be thrown out because it would have be way to dark for anyone's likening. I did like the build up to the truth about Hex's mother because you knew it was going to happen it was just a case of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Philip Olivier is very good in this. I have mixed feelings about him. Sometimes he is very good and then sometimes he is just annoying. When he is in things like The Harvest, No Mans Land and Angel of Scutari then he is very good but then in things like Dreamtime and Night Thoughts he is weak. In this he is in his element when the truth is revealed. Sylvester McCoy puts in another sterling performance. As well as trying to sort out the problems occupying London and infecting himself he has to battle Nimrod and prevent Hex from knowing the truth. Sophie Aldred is sort of in the background in this as she spends a lot of time away from the main action. To be honest there was very little that she could do and the very least that could be said is she puts in an average performance.

As a story on its own it is a nice one. The apocalyptic scenario is well acted out and the characters are all very well acted on. Unfortunately compared to the other Project stories it is weak. There is very little of what makes those stories work in this. Granted it was great to have Nimrod back and Stephen Chance is brilliant. But it is definitely weaker that the other two. Only time will tell whether this series of Seventh Doctor adventures is as good as the Klein trilogy at the beginning of the year. Cavan Scott & Mark Wright have done a good job writing a story which has to get through so much back story and references to make it not seem like a massive mess. Ken Bentley (or Ken Bentleyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy) is a very good director and does a very good job making this story move along with the pace that it needs.

The Empty Child (2005)

Nowadays a Steven Moffat script is obviously quite a regular thing (6 of the 13 2010 episodes were his). This was his first contribution to the show and its one of his best. This two part story is set during the Blitz in the Second World War. This two part story also introduces us to Captain Jack Harkness. A Time Agent who seems to fancy anything human (or human looking) that has a pulse. The Doctor and Rose are tracking a capsule that is jumping time tracks.

Within minutes of arriving Rose is separated from the Doctor after seeing a child in a gasmask on top of a building. Essentially it’s the child that is the main threat. Walking around saying "Are you my mommy?”. Rose spends a large chunk of the story with Jack. When we first meet Jack he is seen flirting with some army guy before returning to his ship to saying Rose who at this point is plunging to the ground after holding onto a barrage balloon. Jack is presented as a cheeky yet charming character and it’s not long before his true colours are revealed and announces that he is a time agent. The Doctor in this opening episode is teamed up with Nancy who is the mother figure to a group of kids. She ransacks homes that are empty when the air raid sirens sound. In fact I was more impressed with the Doctor/Nancy relationship than the Rose/Jack. The Nancy/Doctor relationship was less flirting that Rose and Jack and the Doctor kept pushing Nancy with Nancy making jibes about the Doctor's ears.

The shows big name for this was Richard Wilson (Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave). His involvement is quite short but important none the less. He explains what the threat is before becoming the threat himself. The relationship between Rose and The Doctor is not as rosy (if you pardon the pun). Rose wants a bit of wizardry and "some spock" instead of the apparently low-techness that the Doctor has. The moment that Jack appears and shows all his technology it seems to knock Rose for six and that's when the flirting begins which towards the ending of the episode was starting to get annoying. I thought it was bad with Rose and Mickey, Jack takes it to a whole new level. John Barrowman is good as Jack though. As a character he is clearly someone who isn’t what he seems and Barrowman plays that superbly but as a combo, the Rose and Jack character isn’t great.

The special effects are absolutely stunning. I can’t quite figure out which I like the best. The sight of planes flying over London in the Blitz towards Rose or the sight of Rose and Jack standing on Jack's ship in front of Big Ben. It's moments like these that you fully appreciate how far the show has come in terms of special effects. Another moment worthy of applause is the sequence where Doctor Constantine's face transforms into the Gasmask. It has to be one of the most gruesome images that I can recall in Doctor Who.

The cliffhanger is very well staged and was much better than Aliens of London. All the patients in the hospital are out of bed walking towards the Doctor, Rose and Jack. There's no clear way out of the situation so it’s a case of spending a week working out how they are going to get out of it. As the first part it’s a good opener. All the characters are likeable and the actors playing them are very good and strong. There is some witty dialogue and the way that the story is lit helps create the belief that the show is set in 1941 London. Hopefully the second part will live up to the first.

The Cradle of the Snake (2010)

The Cradle of the Snake is the final story in the Richter trilogy of stories. It sees the return of the Mara to the series. The Mara first appeared in Kinda back in 1982 and was followed by a return the following year. I have to be honest, I was never a big fan of those stories or the Mara and when I found out that the Mara would be appearing in this story I must say that my heart sank a little. Also the author of this story got me slightly worried. Marc Platt is a good writer but at times his stories have been a bit inconsistent. Ghostlight was just bizarre, Spare Parts was brilliant, Skull of Sobek was bad and Loups-Garoux was just odd.

I was waiting for the story to get complicated. It starts of with Tegan being possessed by the Mara and the Doctor going into Tegan's subconscious to try and draw the Mara out. This doesn’t work and the Doctor is forced to bring the TARDIS to Manussa. During this time the Mara has jumped from Tegan to the Doctor and at this point I was wondering when the complicated stuff was going to rear its ugly head. At what point was I going to find the story complicated and uninteresting. Well that point never happened. At no point during these four episodes did I get confused or find the plot complex. It was a nice simple story about the Doctor being possessed by the Mara and the Mara trying to start its rule of Manussa. The story was filled with a lot of action and the drama never slowed down. One thing that I noticed in The Whispering Forest was how the crowded TARDIS issue was evident in that story. In TCOTS, I never noticed that. The characters were all well rounded enough for that crowded issue to be evident.

Of the regular cast, I think that Peter Davison stole the show. I thought that his Mara/Doctor role was well done and was probably the most refreshing moment in the Fifth Doctor stories that I can ever remember. I thought that the Mara/Doctor was believable. I thought that Janet Fielding put in her best performance of these three stories. I thought that she was very good as the Tegan/Mara and I also liked how she was the trying to save the Doctor. Sarah Sutton puts in another good performance especially as the Mara/Nyssa. Though she also put in a good showing as the sheep in Tegan's subconscious. Mark Strickson put in a good performance but was kind of over shadowed by his three co-stars.

The story is not perfect. I thought some of the characters were a bit annoying; in particular Dadda Desaka who's way of talking became instantly annoying after about four words. I stopped caring about his character or what he was saying. I also found the ending to the story a bit weak. After all the build up and the great characters (all but one), I just felt that the ending deserved better. That said I thought that this was a far better story than I was expecting. It wasn’t as good as Cobwebs because I just found that story to be very good. I think that this story is just behind that story with a few weaknesses. Overall this series has been very good. It’s been great to hear the Fifth Doctor with Tegan, Nyssa and Turlough. Janet Fielding's return has been a success and hopefully when the second series of adventures featuring these four characters returns in 2011, it will build on the success and enjoyment of these three stories.

Fathers Day (2005)

We knew that Rose had a mum but nothing was ever mentioned of her father. Episode Eight rectifies that situation. Written by Paul Cornell this is more of a character piece than anything else. Yes there are monsters but this is more about the bond between Rose and the father she never knew. Whilst watching the first few minutes I think how mad the show is that this is the same show that saw stories like Frontier in Space and Dalek Invasion of Earth and here we are exploring a companion’s loss of a parent. It's never been explored before but as this is a different era of Doctor, those new things will get explored and in a sensible and structured way. Rose initially wants to be there when her father dies, nothing more. After not doing anything the first time, the Doctor goes back a second time and Rose saves her fathers life much to the anger of the Doctor. This causes the Reapers to come to that particular time because of the paradox caused. Someone who was supposed to be dead now isn’t. It quite funny for Rose to discover that her lovely image of what her mum and dad are like being ripped to shreds by their arguing right in front of her. I liked how Jackie in 1987 is the same as we see in 2005. We do see a more toned down version in parts of Jackie, like when she is talking to Young Rose about her father and when 1987 Jackie realises that Rose is her daughter from the future. Quite a lovely moment.

I liked how the Doctor knew what needed to be done but hoped that it wouldn’t have to happen because it would mean that Pete would be killed just like he was meant to. It’s quite obvious and from that moment I knew that the emotional tension would be racked up over the course of the story. There‘s a nice moment when the Doctor is talking to the married couple and reassures them that their not insignificant and how he admires them for it. It’s one of those lovely moments. There are moments in this which are quite surprising. The grim nature of having someone knocked down by a car is not a nice thing and quite a brave thing to put on a prime time drama. Though it is something revisited in Turn Left. Pete knows that he has to die and the fact he is willing to do it lifts the character from being a cheeky Del Boy type of character to someone quite brave and noble. The moment when he gets knocked down is directed in a good way, its not shocking and you dont actually see anything but its still dramatic.

Christopher Eccleston takes a back seat in this episode as its all about Rose. Eccleston does the anger look very well and the moments where he has to tell Rose off show that this version of the Doctor is a bit more edgy that previous incarnations. Billie Piper does a very good job and carries this episode well. There are some iffy moments but nothing that gets in the way of a sterling performance. She had pretty much shrugged off the pop star label at this point and this episode shows what a good actress she is. Camille Coduri is good as mentioned showing the different sides to Jackie. Shaun Dingwall was very good as Pete and comes across as a nice guy that adds to the sadness that is felt when he dies at the end.

Overall this episode is good as a character episode. There's not much in terms of alien threat and the reapers dont really shine for me as a good or interesting threat. They were there because of the paradox created by Rose. Father's Day is an episode that has good points but will never come near the top of the favourites chart. In the Mighty 200 DWM survey of 2009, Fathers Day did come in at a respectable 49th just behind the David Tennant debut.

Pete Tyler died 7th November 1987. Two days before Part 2 of Delta and the Bannermen aired. Perhaps the first episode was too much and that added to his decision.

The Long Game (2005)

The Long Game I think is one of the weakest stories featuring the Ninth Doctor. It’s the first to see Adam as a tag on companion. I’m sorry, he’s not a proper companion. The Doctor, Adam and Rose arrive in the year 200,000 on Satellite Five. The Satellite is basically a news corporation with a secret. The people on the Satellite are not as they should be. Their growth is being stunted and there are no aliens, just humans. Everyone on the Satellite is trying to get to floor 500.

The Doctor encounter Cathica and Suki who seem to be normal people on the Satellite. Cathica is the loyal worker and Suki is the cheery but not as bright worker. Suki turns out to be someone else and is quickly killed off (before the 20 minute mark). To be honest the character before and after the revelation was not interesting enough for me to care. The thing that everyone on the base is a whole in the head that allows them to absorb news into their brains. Adam goes for this procedure to try and record information. We see the Editor (Simon Pegg) who is clearly trying to be the Master but light. He’s a megalomanic but it’s not long before we meet the ‘Editor in Chief’. The Editor is working for the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxadrodenfoe also known as Max.

Adam’s motives are shown quite early on. He is not trying to change history but use it to try and make himself rich and perhaps famous. I am really glad that he’s out of the show. The character was irritating and Bruno Langley just didn’t work in this. He may be good in Coronation Street drinking a pint in the Rovers Return but on Satellite Five or fighting against a Dalek he isn’t. It’s better in this series if it is just the Doctor and Rose. The story is about how a group of people are being manipulated and the most faithful of those people who was overlooked for promotion, promotion which would have killed her is the one that destroys the Jagrafess.

Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper are good in this. Eccleston is at his best when he’s acting against Simon Pegg. Simon Pegg is the big name in this episode and plays the Editor. To be honest its not the greatest role that he could have been given but he’s clearly a fan and is having a good job. Tamsin Greig almost steals the show as the Nurse. Her scenes with Adam were very funny and almost made watching Adam a good experience.

The problem with this story is that it doesn’t feel as action packed as previous episodes. There’s no drama and no real lose. With Dalek you sort of felt sorry for the Dalek and the Doctor’s dilemma when he’s got a gun against the Dalek was something enjoyable. There was no of that in this. The only thing that new fans would learn from this is that there are rules in time travel and if you try and put yourself first then you’ll be booted out of the TARDIS. The Long Game is the weakest story and ultimately it’s the writing that lets it down.

Dalek (2005)

Dalek is interesting for a number of reasons. The first being that it’s loosely based on the 2003 Big Finish play ‘Jubilee’. Which sees the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn encounter a Dalek being kept as a plaything. In this, the Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive in an underground bunker in Utah in the year 2012. Underground bunker basically means that it cuts out the cost of either filming in Utah or trying to make a part of Wales look like Utah. The opening sequence is very good because theirs a showcase of aliens. Even a Slitheen arm which only appeared the previous week. We also get a classic Cyberman’s head. Most people watching this episode when it went out wouldn’t know what it was but for people like me there was a small cheer.

There are some impressive Dalek movements. The first that comes to mind is obviously when it flies. Obviously we saw a Dalek fly in Remembrance of the Daleks but this was far more impressive. It was quite funny watching Rose and Adam thinking that they could beat the Dalek by going up some stairs and being stunned when they saw it flying. The moment when the Dalek is under attack from the guards and is spinning 180 degrees and firing and also stopping the bullets was a wonderful moment. For me the best moment was the scene where the Doctor walks into the cell that the Dalek is kept in but doesn’t realise it as the room is dark what it is. The shock that he goes through when the lights come on is priceless. The moment when the Doctor is talking to the Dalek is a nice scene because we know all the history between the Doctor and the Dalek and this was well acted by Christopher Eccleston.

There are problems with this story. First of all I think that Van Statten is a bit 2 dimensional. He’s someone who is has too much money and is just obsessed with collecting things. When things start to go wrong the character of Van Statten (Corey Johnson) just got worse. Even worse than Van Statten was Adam. Played by Bruno Langley who at that point had only just left Coronation Street so was quite a big name. His role was as some boy wizard and love interest for Rose. The pair of them spend a lot of time together and to be honest I could do without it. I’m not one of those people who finds Rose a nuisance but in this one I just found her to be irritating. Her defence of the Dalek was just irritating because I felt that it detracted from the main story.

Christopher Eccleston is very good in this. I always think that the dramatic moments of the Doctor is what suits Eccleston’s Doctor best. The moments where the Doctor is talking to the Dalek are some very good moments. This is one of his best stories. Dalek is not a totally perfect story but its not bad. I think that large chunks of it work but ultimately it’s the Rose/Adam/bonding with the Dalek that lets it down. Robert Shearman has done a good job trying to take elements of Jubilee and making it fit a TV script that benefits from a underground bunker/trapped atmosphere well.

The End of the World (2005)

As I write this, its five years and six months since I first sat down and watched this episode. It’s hard to believe how far the show has come in that time. It’s almost hard to believe it’s been five and a half years since it all began again. When watching this episode it came six days after the BBC made an almighty cock-up and announced that this series of Doctor Who would be the only one featuring Christopher Eccleston. The second episode sees Rose transported into the year five billion where the Earth is about to die. The story takes place on Platform One where all the rich and famous aliens are watching the Earth die. Lady Cassandra (as the last human) is hatching a plan to kill all the dignitaries because she has shares in all their companies and once they die she will become rich. It’s not the most original reason for killing people but then again with only 45 minutes you can’t do a deep and meaningful plot.

This story is remembered to me for two reasons. The first is that it’s revealed that the Timelords are gone. There was a war and “we lost” says the Doctor. Nothing more is made of this but it was a huge bombshell for someone like me who was hoping that the Timelords would pop up in a future episodes. For new fans who are watching only their second ever episode, this line will mean nothing. The second is the introduction of the Psychic paper. Its been used with all three Doctors now and its such a simple creation that its perhaps on par with the sonic screwdriver in that it gets the Doctor out of a sticky situation.

What I think works about this is that whilst Rose is trying to get use to all the different aliens so is the viewer and this is almost crashers cause into 21st century sci-fi. There was a nice moment when Rose phones her mom. I thought it was nicely acted by both Billie Piper and Camile Coduri. I could see why people were making the comparison between Ace and Rose. The scene where Rose has a go at Cassandra because of all the plastic surgery she has showed Rose as feisty and argumentative. The creation of Cassandra is very well realised. It’s a cheeky nod at people who go overboard on plastic surgery. Cassandra is just a sheet of skin and is the last human. Zoe Wannaker does a good job lending a very sinister voice to this character. I like her in the BBC comedy My Family and so think she’s a very good actress.

I can’t believe that I gone this long without mentioning the elephant in the room. The Special Effects in this episode alone were fantastic. Its not hard to have the best effects but this was the episode where my argument because clear. It’s shows what a great show Doctor Who can be when the money is put into it. As showed in pretty much every episode of Doctor Who since the special effects made by The Mill are some of the highlights of this new era. Apparently there are more special effects shots in this episode than in the Ridley Scott film Gladiator (2000).

Christopher Eccleston is very good in this. There is a lot of drama and a few comedic moments. Unfortunately I’m not sold on Eccleston’s comedy moments. Matt Smith gets away with it and Tennant always pulled it off to almost Tom Baker levels. But with Eccleston I’m not entirely sold on it. After seeing him in stuff like the Second Coming and Cracker it’s hard to see him do light hearted stuff. Billie Piper (despite all the eye rolling that will come from people reading this) was very good in this. She does the classic companion thing of being knocked out and locked up requiring rescue whilst the main drama is going on. Piper WAS a good companion and anything anyone else says is wrong or at least not 100% right.

Also this is a funny point. The Ninth Doctor saw the Earth blow up in this episode and in twenty-six episodes time in The Runaway Bride. The Tenth Doctor would see the Earth formed.

The Unquiet Dead (2005)

The first non-RTD story of the new series is one of my favourites not just of this series but since it returned. Written by former League of Gentleman funny man Mark Gatiss, this was the first historical story of the new era and also saw the first famous historical figure appear in the show. We also get our first Bad Wolf moment which is the story arc that would spread throughout the whole series. The opening bit where the women comes back from the dead and kills her son before leaving and walking towards the camera in agony was quite a horrific moment. In fact the whole story is quite grim and dark. Set in 1869 in Cardiff. The story sees the Doctor and Rose along with Charles Dickens trying and make contact with the Gelth. The story features Eve Myles who plays Gwyneth who lives in Cardiff in this and a short time later would play Gwen who lives in Cardiff. There is even a line in one of the Tennant specials where the Doctor makes a joke about whether Gwen has any relatives that lived in Cardiff.

Charles Dickens is played superbly by Simon Callow. The Dickens we get in this is quite a sad and lonely figure at the time. I never knew much about him and I’m sure that this portrayal of him is 100% faithful but there must be a certain truth to it. He started off as quite down and sad but after everything that happens leaves with a smile and a new spring in his step. I quite liked the line What the Shakespeare is going on? Is a joke to the phrase used today where people say “What the Dickens is going on?”. Simon Callow is brilliant in this. Its quite easy now for famous names to come into Doctor Who when the show is a success but Callow and others in this series took a gamble with it. Callow’s Dickens is just a joy to watch and is one of the many highlights of this story.

The Gelth are trying to get into the rift. They use to have a solid form but due to the Time War they lost their form and became the gas form. They occupy dead bodies so that they can feel whole again. They con the Doctor to allow Gwyneth to make the bridge to allow them to enter. The way that they are defeated is quite inventive. Essentially they just turn up the gas and that defeats them. I liked the moment where Rose and Gwyneth are talking and the time difference is clear. Rose talks about looking at boys and their bums and this clearly shocks Gwyneth who thinks bunking off school is the height of being naughty. There’s also a nice moment where the Doctor and Charles Dickens talk after the Doctor tells Dickens to shut up.

I really like this story because it action packed through every of the 45 minutes. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper are starting to bond more and more and their morals clash as the Doctor thinks its acceptable what Gwyneth is going to do whereas Rose thinks its wrong and the Doctor brings up the fact that people have Donor cards. The Rose/Ace point starts to take shape in this adventure. All the other characters not just Charles Dickens were very strong and likeable. Definitely one of the best from the early days of the new Doctor Who.

World War Three (2005)

The first two parter in the new series reached the mid-way point with quite a good cliffhanger. The Doctor was being electrocuted, Rose and Harriet Jones were being attacked by the Blain Slitheen and Jackie was being attacked by the Policeman Slitheen. The conclusion was quick with the Doctor grabbing his ID tag and attacking the Slitheen, all before the title sequence. With the Slitheen electrocuted it meant all the Slitheen were affected and that allowed Jackie, Rose and Harriet Jones to escape.

The story in the second half of the story is how the Slitheen are trying to create world war three and the Doctor is trying to stop them. With the Doctor, Rose and Harriet being trapped in the cabinet room its down to Mickey and Jackie to save the day. There is a lot of stuff that happens in this episode and this makes up for the slow build-up that we got in the previous episode. There is some nice humour in this episode. The not backing someone against a lift door when your about to execute them was one that tickled me. The “you pass the drink to the left” line between the Doctor and Harriet was another funny one. Andrew Marr also gives all of his lines with a slightly comedic tone behind them. All the humour is pitched just right and doesn’t take over the whole story.

The special effects continued to impress with some impressive Slitheen running after Rose and Harriet Jones action. The special effects in all these episodes have been very impressive but to show alien creatures chasing the main characters in an effective way shows how far the show has come. I also found the location filming to be particularly impressive. Even though they clearly didn’t film in the real Downing Street there is a nice feeling like it is the real Downing Street.

When this story first aired it was about two years since the war on Iraq started and there are several nods to that with Harriet saying “I voted against it!”. It’s only clear now that there was some anti-war sentiments by the writer as there is some in another Doctor Who story. But at the time I cant say I noticed and that’s a good thing because it allows you to enjoy the drama and the tension to stop the Slitheen from starting World War Three. Camile Coduri and Noel Clarke have done a great job in this story of turning my opinion around. I found Jackie to be your typical chavvy mum and Mickey to be a dopey boyfriend but with what happened in this story they have become more than that. There not the best characters in Doctor Who but I can tolerate them.

Compared to other two parters that Doctor Who have produced since this one, it’s quite a slow affair and the others are quite fast and have a lot more in the first part than this. However it’s a surprise that in the Mighty 200 DWM survey of 2009 it was ranked in 132nd place. I think its unfair. I thought that as a two-parter it was a good offering. It was the first two-parter they produced so it wasn’t going to be perfect. But it should be watched and more importantly enjoyed.

Aliens of London (2005)

The first two-parter of the new series is quite a big moment in new Doctor Who. When I first saw this back when it was originally transmitted in April 2005, I wondered whether a two parter new Doctor Who would work. Aliens of London is the first part and it sees the Doctor bring Rose back to the Powell estate. The Doctor thinks it’s been 12 hours since the events of the first episode but in fact it’s been 12 months and Rose’s mom has launched a missing campaign. With the shock return of Rose it is six minutes before anything sci-fi happens with a spaceship crash landing in the Thames after crashing into Big Ben.

There’s a wonderful build up of suspense that Russell T Davies has built into the script. The identity of the body that is pulled out of the ship is not shown straight away. Meanwhile with the arrival of the alien spaceship the British Government has gone into meltdown with three rather large people having taken power. Joseph Green is acting Prime Minister with Margaret Blaine as some MI5 person and Olivier Charles. The arrival is treated as mundane and not worth reporting but they are their because of their size. Their ample frame is the right size to hold what are called the Slitheen. The way that they come out of the skin is rather ingenious. A zip on the forehead is something that can he hidden when not needed but appear in shot the second the Slitheen is about to come out. The moment when General Asquith is killed and replaced by a Slitheen is quite gruesome as are the sound effects. I quite like the design of the Slitheen, it’s something that’s going to keep the kids entertained and it does look quite good.

There are problems with this episodes. The first being that I think that the story could have done without the fart jokes. I don’t mind puerile humour but not in my favourite TV show. It does however lead to a nice line towards the end when the Doctor say “Excuse me, do you mind not farting whilst I’m trying to save the world!”. Another problem is that this episode spends an awful long time being a domestic. I admit it was quite interesting to see the fallout of Rose’s return but after that I just wanted them to get to the main action. This story also features the return of UNIT though they pretty much non-existent in this story and that seems like a waste to me.

After Eve Myles appearing in The Unquiet Dead. Its Naoko Mori turn to make a pre-Torchwood appearance. In this she plays Doctor Sato. This story sees the first appearance of Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones who is just a normal MP in this story. I quite like the Harriet Jones we get in this as Wilton gives her a mumsy performance as someone that you could trust. There’s a cameo appearance from Andrew Marr who was a political correspondent for the BBC.

The last few minutes leading up to the cliffhanger are very well directed and acted. There is a lot of suspense and you do wonder how are they going to get out of this one. The Doctor is in the main meeting being electrocuted to death whilst Rose, Harriet Jones and Indra Ganesh (the Downing Street guy) being trapped by the Blaine Slitheen. There is also the part where Jackie Tyler is trapped in her flat by the policemen Slitheen. It was a good first cliffhanger for the new series.

Time and the Rani (1987)

Time and the Rani was the first story to feature Sylvester McCoy after Colin Baker had been unceremoniously sacked and refused to record a regeneration sequence. Unusually (at that time) there is a pre-title sequence which sees the TARDIS crash land on Lakertya, the Rani walks in and the creature with her turns over the Doctor and ‘he’ regenerates into McCoy. It’s perhaps the most ill conceived sequence in Doctor Who. Why they couldn’t have thought of something better is beyond me. They could have done a sequence where the Doctor has his back to the screen and there is a power surge in the console and it affects the Doctor and forces him to regenerate. That’s a much better idea that sadly came 23 years too late. Unfortunately the TARDIS scene pretty much sets the stall out for this story and it’s not good.

There are good things about this story. It’s good to have Kate O’Mara back as the Rani because I think that O’Mara is a very good actress. She was the best thing about Mark of the Rani and that was because of the chemistry she had with Anthony Ainley. If it wasn’t Kate O’Mara playing this role it would have been just a normal mad scientist character trying to do some dastardly deed and this would have been an average story. O’Mara spends a large chunk of this story pretending to be Mel. Every time I watched this I kept wondering to myself…why? As much as I like the Rani and Kate O’Mara, unfortunately she is wasted in this story.

There is a lot of bad things about Time and the Rani. First of all are the Lakertyrans who look awful and unfortunately don’t do much of any interest in this story. I also found McCoy’s performance to be more suitable for pantomime. There is a history of the Doctor being a bit odd shortly after his regeneration but McCoy’s performance was just too silly for my liking. Thankfully after this story his eccentricity gets pulled in and we get the McCoy performance like in Remembrance of the Daleks. This isnt McCoy’s fault because there was no discipline in the story. No one knew what McCoy’s Doctor was going to be like and as a result we get a loose version of the character.

The story was written by Pip and Jane Baker. They wrote Mark of the Rani and I really liked that as I think its one of Colin Baker’s best stories. Then they wrote Terror of the Vervoids for the Trial of a Timelord series which was probably one the better stories of that series but was not as good as Mark. This story unfortunately suffers from uncertainty in that the Bakers didn’t even know who was going to play the Doctor. They do a good job in their 1987 novelisation of this story by explaining what caused the regeneration. It was a case of ‘tumultuous buffeting’ which was a wonderful term.

Time and the Rani deserves its placing in fans opinions. A lot of stories from the classic series that were not held in high esteem but over the years and especially when released on DVD would be looked at differently. Unfortunately this rule doesn’t always apply. Time and the Rani is a terrible story that suffers from a clear direction setting. With the show surviving from the Michael Grade axe and being placed opposite Coronation Street, this story should have been better. Pip and Jane Baker should have made the Doctor darker (even if they didn’t know who the actor was) and perhaps this story might have been better.

The Whispering Forest (2010)

The Whispering Forest is the second in what I am calling the Richter’s Trilogy. Following the very impressive Cobwebs, I had high hopes that The Whispering Forest would be able to build on that good work and make The Cradle of the Snake a brilliant finale to this series. This story was written by Stephen Cole who has written three stories for the main range stories between 1999 and 2003.

What is happening is that the people are being taken by the people called ‘The Takers’. Whenever someone is ill or dying are taken away so there is an obsession with cleaning. The revelation that the Takers are infact the medical robots and they are doing what they are programmed to do made sense to me. The story sees a power struggle between Seksa and Mertil. Mertil sees the arrival of the Doctor and his friends as a threat but Seksa is more reasonable. Part of the story sees Mertil trying to lead an attack on the Takers. The stories conclusion was pretty standard, it didn’t cop out and didn’t get silly but the problem is that by the end of episode four I had just found that the story ordinary.

The problem with this story is that I didn’t get a sense of the danger. Ok so Mertil is clearly mad and wants power but apart from that there was no menace. It felt like a story that was just going through the motions. At the end of the story there was a reference to the Mara which leads into The Cradle of the Snake. As a stand alone story its not as good as it should be but as part of the series it’s a nice bridge story between Cobwebs and Cradle of the Snake.

The Main cast were on good form. I found that Janet Fielding was better in this story because she had slightly more to do. I think that the next story will be her story but in this case I found that she had got a proper handle on the Big Finish version of her character. Mark Strickson and Sarah Sutton were on good form but I did find at one point Turlough’s sarcasm was just a bit annoying. That said I think that what was a crowded TARDIS on TV has been handled very well and all four actors get a fair crack of the whip. Of the supporting cast I thought that Sue Wallace was the best, whilst it wasn’t the most original character I found that Wallace’s performance was very enjoyable. Hayley Atwell’s performance was also very strong and I thought that the conflict between Seksa and Mertil was a highlight of the story. Atwell is a very good actress and was good in Blood of the Daleks back in 2007.

The thing that I will remember about The Whispering Forest is how it just didn’t delivery what I was expecting. The acting was good and the music and sound effects were what I would expect from Big Finish but on the storytelling front I just found it lacking that killer punch. The middle story syndrome seems to have struck again.

Nevermore (2010)

Nevermore is the third story from this fourth series and its written by Alan Barnes which probably explains why even after two listens I understood very little of it. The Doctor and Tamsin arrive on Corinth Minor which is a planet where the rich and powerful lived and after a little war with another planet. The General on the other planet created a bacterial bomb which pretty much wiped out Corinth Minor. It was later renamed Nevermore.

The idea that Nevermore is essentially a prison for Morella Wendigo who created the bomb as somewhere we she can think about what she has done is a good one. It is perhaps what should be done for a lot of criminals. I also get the stuff with the robotic ravens and how the prosecutor created all this stuff based on Edgar Allan Poe but for me after about 20 minutes of Edgar quotes I got bored with it all and wondered just where on earth (or nevermore) this story was going. This was the second story to feature Tamsin as the companion. I don’t really think she shone in the story. There were moments where I thought she was given some snappy dialogue and I definitely see potential in the character that doesn’t make me fear for the series or the character.

There were three big names in this story. The first being Fenella Woolgar who appeared as Agatha Christie in the 2008 TV adventure ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ and also appeared in the 2009 Eighth Doctor adventure ‘The Company of Friends’. She plays Morella Wendigo and I thought that her American accent was very good. I often get annoyed by American accents and think that they are cheesy and distracting. In this it was pitched just right and if I didn’t know better I would have said she was American. The character of Morella was very good as she was cold but believed what she did was right. There was no remorse about what she had done. Eric Loren was the second big name in this story. He appeared as Mr Diagoras and as Dalek Sec in the 2007 TV adventure Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks and also appeared in the 2008 audio play Assassin in the Limelight. He played the pilot and Edgar Alan Poe. I found his portrayal of Edgar Allan Poe to be very well done. There was sadness about him and that really stood out for me. The third big name was Emilia Fox who played Berenice. She currently stars in the BBC drama Silent Witness. The character of Berenice was very underplayed to begin with but her involvement was quite important and I thought she should have been given a more prominent role in this story or in another.

This is one of the weakest stories of 2010. I thought they over did the Edgar Allan Poe stuff by quite a bit and there was more than enough plot there for Alan Barnes to make a good story. This is what I thought of the story after I finished listening to it the first time, so when I gave it a second listen I was expecting to get it a bit more. However on the second listen I found it just as bad. I’m very reluctant to call anything Big Finish do bad but unfortunately there’s very little for me to actually say good about this.