Mawdryn Undead (1983)

Mawdryn Undead is the first story in the Black Guardian Trilogy. This has become the third such story arc in five years with The Key to Time (1978-79) and The E-Space Trilogy (1980). Nowadays it’s nothing unusual to have a story arc running through several stories but back in 1983 it’s out of the norm. We are introduced to Turlough played by Mark Strickson who is a public school (even though he was 24 when this aired) and by a million to one chance, The Brigadier is also at this school but a teacher. After stealing a car and crashing it, Turlough is given the chance by the Black Guardian (last seen in The Armageddon Factor) to return home to Trion. However he has to kill the Doctor. This is plot over the next three stories and to be honest is two stories too long. This story is written by Peter Grimwade who I think is save to say a much better director than writer. Previous stories have been a tad rubbish.

The main story plot is split between 1977 and 1983 where there are two Brigadiers’ and they have done a clever thing of distinguishing between the two by having one with the trademark moustache. There’s a lovely scene where they are missing each other on Mawdryn’s ship. The moment when they meet and their hands touch shows why the same person from different areas of their own time stream should never meet.

The story seems like it could be totally baffling because of all the different Brigadier’s and one set of characters in 1977 and the other set in 1983. However it doesn’t go too far as to totally ruin my enjoyment. It’s quite nice than in the shows 20th Anniversary year that it allows itself a time to get nostalgic with a scene between the Doctor and the 1983 Brigadier where they allude to what has happened to other members of UNIT. We also learn that the 1983 Brigadier has suffered a nervous breakdown which sadly is never given any detail. What we do get is a wonderful scene in the TARDIS where the Brigadier remembers things from his past and the lovely moment when he realises who the Doctor is also lovely. It might be a tad indulgent but I think from time to time it’s worth it.

There are a few flaws with this story. The first being the design of Mawdryn. I must concede that in 1983 it might have looked quite impressive but sadly with 21st Century eyes it just looks like someone has plonked a bowl of spaghetti on David Collings (Mawdryn) head and it ruins the credibility of the character. Though credit to Collings because he does a great job being the leader of the spaghetti head crew. Another flaw is the idea that Nyssa and Tegan mistaken Mawdryn for the Doctor. I suppose at the time it might have been plausible but I never understood how they could have made such a massive error.

I quite like Turlough. I think that Mark Strickson does the best of bad job. The cliffhanger to the first episode was the most obvious chance that he has to kill the Doctor but faffs around for so long that he loses his chance and he fluffs every other chance over the next twelve episodes. Over the course of his time in the show, we never really learn much about him except in his last story and he’s never really given much of a chance to become a fan favourite during his time on the show and it’s only during his Big Finish time that Mark Strickson is given the material to work with. The Turlough we get in this story isn’t particularly a nice character and acts a bully to ‘Hippo’ Ibbotson. Even going to the stage of blaming him for the crash. It’s a good attempt to portray the character as an unlikeable guy and that’s why I like him. He’s completely different from any male companion in Doctor Who.

This is the first appearance for Nicholas Courtney since Terror of the Zygons in 1976. Since then the character has retired from UNIT and become a teacher. It’s a plausible character development and to be honest I don’t really care because it’s just great to have Courtney back in Doctor Who and we get two of them to add to the excitement.

Out of the three stories from the Black Guardian Trilogy, it’s arguably the best because there seems to be more enthusiasm and more energy in this story than in the next two. Despite the Spaghetti headed Mawdryn, the idea that they need to use the Doctor’s regeneration cycle to survive is quite a good one and it’s definitely one of the better Peter Grimwade written stories.

The Almost People (2011)

Well at the conclusion of the previous episode we had the predictable appearance of the Doctor-ganger. Part two of this Matthew Graham story is one that deals with the Gangers trying to kill their originals and get off the island to meet up with other gangers. The story moves at a fairly standard pace but I did find it flagging about half way through. I don’t really care about the gangers and we learn nothing about what they intend to do. Ok there is an issue about how the gangers are treated and its clear that Rory is confused as to what to do but at the end of the day there is nothing really special about them and that bothers me. I think that if your going to play the oppressed group then there should be something more about you.

I did like Sarah Smart and Raquel Cassidy. Both put in stunning performances and as a big fan of Cassidy’s I thought that she did really well. Having a character that has a clot is something that leads the viewer to believe she wont make it and neither will her ganger. Thankfully the real Cleaves is given something to get rid of it. I thought that Sarah Smart has been consistently brilliant throughout the two episodes as the character (Jennifer) is the driving force behind the ganger resistance. Having seen the group of discarded Jennifiers it solidifies her view and why she’s angry whereas the others seem to only be half bothered. I did like having two Doctors as this provided a rare moment where he interacts with himself and quite like the two Amy’s in the Comic Relief special back in March, it provides a bit of light relief. I thought the use of ‘Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow’ and ‘Would You Like a Jelly Baby’ were meant for classic fans and certainly struck a cord with me. It was difficult though trying to work out who was the real Doctor and who was the fake. This was an issue that I had with the previous episode and it was something that cropped up in this episode. At the end of this episode I had just stopped caring and it gave me the opinion that this story wasn’t working for me.

I thought that his story was Arthur Darvill’s best performance. He has had to play the dummy role in previous stories but in this one gives a stunning performance. I actually thought that Karen Gillan put in a different type of performance. Presented with two Doctor’s who have the same physical appearance and also (presumably) the same memories, she chooses one over the other. She doesn’t like the other Doctor because he’s ‘different’ which doesn’t seem like Amy but it’s a nice different side to the character.

Having watched Matt Smith on the BBC show ‘The One Show’ I was expecting something big coming at the end of this episode and it happened. We learn that Amy is actually a ganger and she disperses into goo. The revelation that Amy is in some sort of tank about to give birth was quite a dark moment. I know that the series was suppose to be dark but this goes really dark. Then the ‘cyclops’ lady appears like she has done throughout previous episodes this series. It is a fantastic lead into the final story of this half of the series and I cant wait for next week.

I have to say that overall the two-parter was ok. Nothing worse and nothing special. I have to say that it was a vast improvement on Fear Her but compared to previous stories its not one of my favourites. It’s a story of two sides, one being the ganger stuff and the other being the last five minutes which was fantastic.

Midnight (2007)

Midnight is a story that is slightly different compared to previous regular-lite roles. This story is Donna light and the next story is Doctor light. This gets through the logistical problems that were created when the BBC decided they wanted 14 episodes but only give the team enough time to film 13 episodes. This story also marks the 50th episode of Doctor Who to be made in the new era. This is also a cheap episode in that there is very little in the way of effects. The title refers to the planet Midnight but its sort of a jokey title because we see very little of it, what we do see however is very beautiful.

The story sees the Doctor on a crusier when mid-flight it develops a fault and the passengers and crew are under attack from a mysterious threat. There is a wonderful eerie sense that runs through this episode and its to do with the claustrophobic setting. The cast are in a box essentially. There is nowhere the run and nowhere to hide and that fantastic in a drama. What I really liked what the bold step of no-one trusting the Doctor. Normally everyone just accepts what the Doctor says and accepts that he is going to take charge but that doesn’t happen here and it puts the Doctor on the back foot for the first time in a long time.

If I had to pick a fault with the story then it would be that the story takes a little bit too long to get going. It seems like its going to be a typical Tennant story but then when the crusier breaks down it gets going. The thing that makes the story good is not knowing what is outside trying to get in.

The story benefits from some fantastic acting. David Troughton makes his third Doctor Who TV appearance and in my mind his best. He plays Professor Hobbes and everytime that he was on screen I enjoyed the story even more. This story also sees Lindsey Coulson appear as Val Cane who appeared in two stints in the BBC soap Eastenders. However I think the star of the show was Lesley Sharp as Sky Silvestry. Sharp is a very good actress and she steels the show here. Her character starts off very likeable and nice and is soon taken over. The bit where she is repeating everything the Doctor is saying is very creepy.

The directing is something that I often overlook in doing a review for Doctor Who but in this story its one of the things that makes it stand out. There are some wonderful shots especially the shot where Sharp has her face to a wall and we see the wall with a silhouette. It’s a great moment and its credit to Troughton that she manages to get so many good shots in such a confined space and makes it interesting.

Tennant puts in his best performance of the series, actually for quite some time. There is a sense of being vulnerable and it’s an odd thing to see this. Tennant seems to revel in not being the one in control and as a viewer its refreshing to see it. Without Catherine Tate he manages to shrug off the humour and give us a performance that shows us why he is such a good Doctor. The fact that things don’t go the way that he wants is something that the Doctor is not use to and that’s a good thing to see because the good guy doesn’t always win and this proves it.

So Midnight is my favourite story of this series. It’s a very dark episode for a Tennant story and its well written and very well directed and all the performances are top notch and for a milestone episode in the new era of the show, it’s a fitting way of celebrating it.

Ferril's Folly (2011)

The penultimate release of season five of the companion chronicles is one that I have heard about for a long time. According to the author (Peter Anghelides) it was one of the first stories that was commissioned by David Richardson and for various reasons it didn’t get made. I wondering if there were any production problems with the writing of this story and that was mentioned in the preview of this story in Doctor Who Magazine but on listening to this story I don’t think it was the case. This is the second Companion Chronicle to feature Romana I, her previous story was Stealers from Saiph in 2009 which I really liked. The biggest different between the stories is that in SFS there was just Mary Tamm and no one else. In this story Tamm is joined by Madeline Potter who has appeared in Assassin in the Limelight (2008) and The Cradle of the Snake (2010). She plays Lady Ferril who is not a well liked woman in the town of Norfolk. Ferril’s Folly is set between the Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara but I didn’t know this until after listening to the story. Now we know that they collect all six segments of the Key to Time and how they get them so I was wondering what the logic was for setting this story during this time. But in the grand scheme of things its not the most important thing in the world.

The story itself is an ok one. The Doctor and Romana encounter this woman with a nickname of (rather amusingly) Metal Minnie. This is due to her having a metal hand after an accident during her days as an astronaut. There is a nice little back story which helps make the character seem a bit more real and someone that I should and do care about. The story plods along at a reasonable pace and there are some wonderful images created in my mind with spider statues and people being impaled by the statues. I did think it was sailing to close to the idea of the Weaping Angels but that just could be me. I thought at first that pretending that the Doctor and Romana could mistaken something for a segment of the Key to Time would be ridiciculos and in a way it is but its done in such a good way that its almost impossible to actually get annoyed by the fact they are doing it in the first place.

After a disappointing run of Companion Chronicles, its good that we get a entertaining story. After listening to Mary Tamm in the second and third series of Gallifrey my appreciation of her has gone up in recent times. Her impression of Tom Baker isnt very good but then again she’s not an impressionist and its not really the reason why we listen to these stories but its always good when they get close to the Doctor’s voice. Overall, Mary Tamm is very good and she should appear in more Big Finish plays. Hopefully with Tom Baker now doing plays for Big Finish she might get her chance. Madeleine Potter is also very good as Lady Ferril. She is believable as a baddy and puts some enthusasim into her dialogue. In the interview in the ‘CD’ extras at the end this story its stated that because there were a lot of female villains in the Key to Time series that it would be quite nice to continue that in this story and I agree with that. It’s refreshing that they have done this.

I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of Peter Anghelides. I’m not 100% keen on The Chaos Pool or The Four Doctors as I think that they are fairly standard and don’t have anything huge about them. So in that respect I think that this is his best story so far. I think that after a displeasing The Forbidden Time and Sentinels of the New Dawn it was a welcomed return to form.

The Rebel Flesh (2011)

The second two-parter of the series is written by Matthew Graham who gave us the very dull ‘Fear Her’ in 2006 and the more impressive Life on Mars and it’s spin-off Ashes to Ashes. The story sees the TARDIS crew involved in a ‘solar tsunami’ and arrive on Earth in the 22nd Century. The TARDIS lands on an island where there is a factory which pumps highly corrosive acid to the mainland. I loved the scene where the TARDIS is flying in that solar tsunami because it was lovely piece of CGI. There is a certain smartness that Graham has used in this story in that as the crew are dealing with acid, they use dopplegangers to do the dangerous stuff. The prostetchics is very well done and looks very creepy. There is a time issue as the solar tsunami is going to strike the factory and those inside. But as with everything in Doctor Who, the leader wont listen to the Doctor who offers to take them away in the TARDIS. It’s also at this point that the story gets really interesting in that the ‘gangers’ decide to stand up against their real life copies. I was worried for a little while when they were doing the whole dopplegangers can have that shiny face on or the normal face and thought that the story was going to get confusing and I would be spending the whole episode trying to figure out who was what. Thankfully that didn’t happen which would have ruined my enjoyment.

This story rather interestingly has the first crack in the Rory/Amy relationship when Rory befriends Jennifer. Jennifer (Sarah Smart) is the one that were suppose to warm to as she is the only one of the gangers that is just as human as her original. This despite the bit where Jennifer tries to punch Rory. If anyone tried to punch me then I wouldn’t befriend them. It’s a good thing that Rory is trying to stand up to Amy as in recent stories he has been a bit of a loved up puppy to Amy. I quite liked Raquel Cassidy as she is a very good actress having appeared in Teachers and Lead Balloon. As the leader Cleaves, she is the one that decides against common sense and wont leave until she’s told to. I also liked Marshall Lancaster (another Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes connection) as Buzzer,

If I did have an issue with this story then there are two really big ones. Firstly I don’t think that compared to other first parters in new-who, that there is anything big that happens. Certainly against The Impossible Astronaut it lacks anything that visually stands out. Secondly, the cliffhanger of the Doctor having a doppelganger. If you didn’t see that coming then your just not trying. As a single part episode it’s the weakest so far but only next week will tell what its like as a two-parter. What I can say is that regardless of what happens in The Almost People in seven days time, this is 100% better than Fear Her.

Daleks in Manhattan (2007)

The first two parter of the 2007 series sees the return of the Daleks who were last seen being sucked into the void except for the cult of Skaro. Despite this story being set in Manhattan, the Doctor Who team do a good job of making 21st century Cardiff seem like 1930’s America. The story is written by Helen Rayner who had been the shows Script Editor so the story was going to make sense at very least. The story does a good job in making us understand the setting. Set during the Great Depression, the scene where the ‘residents’ of the camp would be rounded up to work on something that they thought they were going to get paid.

The problem with this story is that this episode doesn’t have much going for it. Miranda Raison’s performance was ridiculously over the top. I found the bit where Talluah has that scene with her pig faced boyfriend to be awful. This sums up my general feeling of this story. There is too much emotional stuff going on and this gets in the way of the Dalek stuff which is why after all we have all tuned in. In this story Dalek Sec consumes a human and its actually well set up and slowly built to with the revelation coming at the end. Although when I say revelation, most of us already knew what it would look like because the kind chaps at the Radio Times decided to put it on the front cover thus ruining any sense of surprise. It’s a shame because that bit of shock and surprise is what the story really needed and would have been a great cliffhanger.

The big name is Hugh Quarshie who is best known to modern British audiences as appearing as Ric Griffin in the BBC medical drama Holby City. He is quite good despite not being a role that befits his acting ability. Despite my feelings regarding the character I do think Miranda Raison is a good actress. She is quite good in the BBC spy drama Spooks but unfortunately on this occasion is given a dud role. Only Eric Loren has a good role as Mr Diagores. His character spends the first half of this episode as a typical gangster boss who doesn’t fully understand his bosses. The scene where he is consumed by Dalek sec is a nice suitably horrific scene. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman have gelled and their performances are very good. I think the attitude from Agyeman’s character has been toned down a bit but not too much as to make her bland and dull. Tennant puts in a good show and he has some nice scenes with Quarshie.

I’m not a huge fan of this two part story but normally the first part would be the stronger of the two because it was have the more interesting build up before being let down by a lacklustre action part. There are moments in this episode that I quite like but unfortunately for Daleks in Manhattan it doesn’t have enough to give it that killer punch and I think that if I had to give a ‘Best Episode out of the two Award’ then it would reluctantly have to go to this one.

Evolution of the Daleks (2007)

Evolution is the disappointing conclusion to a disappointing two parter. The story plays around with the idea of human Daleks which I do like however the problem is that it just doesn’t grab my attention in this story which is a shocking revelation. The original idea of the Daleks has always been to keep the Dalek race pure, their likeness to the Nazi’s has been commonplace since they first appeared. However now that there is a human Dalek this contradicts the Daleks’ idea. There is a wonderful moment where two Daleks are talking to each other about Dalek Sec and one of them looks around them to make sure that they aren’t being spied on. Another thing I didn’t like was the way that the Daleks got written out of the story. The temperal shift that they used in Doomsday was clever and was also impressive. Fast forward to this story and it just looks like a bit of a cop-out as it robs the viewer of a satisfactory end to the Dalek involvement in this story.

The story is centred around the Empire State Building which when this story was set was still being built. It was a good idea and helps to maintain the illusion of the country that this story is set. It also good that a well known landmark is used but not in the way that we know it. I also thought that the sets were very impressive. I thought that the big lab area that the Daleks use was very good and allowed for some big scenes to take place. However my favourite were the tunnel scenes which had a claustrophobic feel to them.

The performances of David Tennant and Freema Agyeman continue to be entertaining. I did start to warm to the Laszlo character (played by Ryan Carnes), I didn’t like him in the previous episode but he grows on me during this episode. Something I didn’t twig until this episode was another famous face who wasn’t famous at the time but would go on to become quite a big name appearing in The Social Network where he was nominated in the Best Actor category at the Oscars and BAFTA’s. I thought at the time that his character wasn’t anything particularly special and I still don’t but its interesting to know that in this series of Doctor Who we have two actors (Carey Mulligan the other) who would go onto to get Oscar nominations.

Unfortunatley the story is a rather mish mash of a story. I think the story suffers from fairly dull characters and a rather ordinary Dalek plan. Out of all the Dalek stories in the new series, this is by far the weakest one. It’s not terrible just dull. I thought it when I first watched it when it aired in April 2007 and I think it today. I know that there was a lot of people ripping the story to shreds and I think that its unfair to Helen Rayner because I think that had it been another sort of story then it would have gone down better but because it had the word Dalek in the title then people’s expectations go up and sadly she wasn’t able to match it.

The Lazarus Experiment (2007)

The near half way point of the series is where the Saxon story arc gets a bit more involved in the story. The Doctor and Martha return to earth where the Doctor gets a less than warm response from Martha’s mother. Martha’s sister Tish has got a job with Professor Lazarus who starts off as an old man but a spin in his machine and he becomes a younger man. However he soon turns into a scorpion type thing and that’s when the Doctor’s job gets tougher. This story is written by Stephen Greenhorn who would go on to write ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ the following year. The story sees Mark Gatiss finally make an on screen contribution to the series. After writing the superb ‘The Unquiet Dead’ in 2005 and ‘The Idiots Lantern’ in 2006 he gets to play a significant role. He plays Professor Lazarus who goes on a journey that is in connection with Harold Saxon.

The main plot in this story is a fairly good one. The Doctor gets to his thing of defeating an enormous creature. Lazarus is more effective and believable when he is younger. It’s quite a modern thing to be obsessed with looking younger. I quite liked this part of the story as it was a good idea and it was done well and it was standard Doctor Who stuff. However for me it was the stuff that happened in and around the church that I liked the best. Just when you thought the Doctor had defeated Lazarus, there was more and there was a great battle sequence which was imaginative and very enjoyable. I liked how after the drama is over its replaced with a sad moment of Lazarus back as a human. But there’s no time to reflect as Mrs Jones’ lack of trust towards the Doctor is heightened when some mysterious bloke whispers something in her ear. It’s the same way that Jackie Tyler was introduced where Jackie didn’t like the Doctor at first but soon warmed to him. However I think that Adjoa Andoh pulls it off better. The only downside of the Jones family is Reggie Yates who’s involvement is totally wrong. He cant act and his contribution to the show is just awful and its great that this is his last appearance in the show and he went back to being a stupid Radio 1 DJ.

Away from the Jones family, the supporting cast were very god. Mark Gatiss is a good screen presence. As a fan of the League of Gentleman and also of the Unquiet Dead, as Professor Lazarus he plays the role like one of the milder characters from the League of Gentleman. I also liked Thelma Barlow’s appearance. The former Coronation Street actress has a short time on screen as Professor Lazarus’ wife but is still just as important and is very good.

It’s good that their putting more Saxon stuff into it. I did wonder if we were going to meet the Master in this episode which when you think about it is quite obvious, he was never going to appear in this episode but I could hope. After a disappointing Dalek story it was good that they returned to form with this story that does a lot in just forty-five minutes. Stephen Greenhorn has written a good story and its complimented by some good direction and Richard Clark. It’s not the best story of the season but its certainly an enjoyable one.

Gridlock (2007)

Gridlock is the third story of the series which sees the Doctor return to New Earth. The opening story of the previous series saw the story focused in a nice white clean hospital but this time the story is in a grimy and less glamorous side to New Earth. There was a bit of thing about when the story was aired due to a FA Cup match between Manchester United and Watford. Had the match gone into extra time then the show would have been postponed, thankfully United won 4-1 and Doctor Who transmitted just forty minutes late. The story sees the Doctor and Martha travel to New Earth where they encounter people who are in a long term traffic jam. Martha is kidnapped by a young couple who only want Martha so that they can get in a new lane and get out of the jam hell that they are in.

The story has a classic Doctor Who element which harks back to story number one and that is the companion gets kidnapped. This means that the Doctor does what he does best and that is save the damsel in distress. This leads to some fun moments when the Doctor moves from cart to cart with a whole range of aliens which range from 1960 Civil servants with bowler hats to nudists to an old couple. But it’s the first alien creature that the Doctor meets that stands out and that’s because he is played by Ardal O’Hanlon who appeared in Father Ted. In this he plays Brannigan who is a cat that is very polite.

The story features the return of the Macra. I was quite surprised that they appeared as there was no mention of it in any magazines or on the internet. Whilst on one hand I was happy they returned I was curious as to the reason for their appearance. They only appeared in one story back in 1967 in a story that no longer exists on video. Their appearance was brief and no doubt it will have had some fans making a high pitched tone but for me it was a mixed return. This story also marks the final appearance of the Face of Boe. Despite essentially being a massive face in a jar, its death was quite sad. However his final words were quite important.

“You are not alone”

Whereas I liked Tennant’s performance I was slightly down on Freema Agyeman’s performance. I found it slightly grating which is a shame because I have liked her so far. There is a different relationship between the Doctor and Martha and what the relationship was like between the Doctor and Rose. The story sees the return of Novice Hame who appeared in New Earth. Played by Anna Hope (who would go on to appear in Big Finish plays since 2009), the character was better in this story because the character didn’t have to share the screen with other cat people. She is continuing her care of Boe which is a nice continuation from the previous story.

Gridlock is a fun story that manages to get a lot of action out of a small space. It does a lot of set up to the series finale and it’s a story that benefits from a simple yet effective story and benefits greatly from some visually stunning scenes. Oh and Father Dougal Maguire with a Cat face is a little highlight. The final scene between the Doctor and Martha is a lovely moment and it reminds me how fantastic this show can be.

Panacea (2006)

The final story of the third series is was what I was hoping would be a fitting end to a superb series. It’s felt like a long series and that is due to the large amount of things that have been going on our the previous five releases. We’ve had civil war, elections, return of familiar voices and the best is yet to come. It falls to Alan Barnes to find a fitting end to the fourteenth chapter. I liked the opening scene because it starts with Romana returning to her ancestral home of Heartshaven. I don’t know whether this was common knowledge but this was the first time that I had heard this name so it was nice to have a bit of information about the former President. The Matthias era is clearly one that isnt going to be as strongly lead as at one point he expects people to collect a certain amount of pig-rats. It’s the sort of bad management that is common place in real life.

The Free Time virus which with all the political fighting over the last few stories I had forgotten all about sees the introduction of Arkadian (Hugo Myatt), who will sell a cure to the virus and the price is one that is massive and that is the temporal weaponry of Gallifrey which will no doubtibly go to some dubious third party. Matthias is on a hiding to nothing because if he does nothing then the Timelord race will be infected and zombified. However if he agrees then Timelords will survive but will never be able to regenerate.

There’s an interesting message that appears when Braxiatel tells everyone that there is a threat coming to Gallifrey and only the Imperiatrix would have helped Gallifrey get through. It’s a ‘You didn’t know when you were better off!’. Braxiatel has managed to steal the Biodata archive creating a sort of Ark to preserve the Timelords. It’s clever thing to do because the Free Time virus is consuming more Timelords. The ending is a tad bit unexpected because I was sort of expecting an ending that would satisfactorly tie up the loose ends but in fact it ends with this line

“Right. What we’re going to do is…..”

The performances are as usual perfect. The dialogue is good enough that everyone gets their moment to shine and it due to this that the story doesn’t feel like 79 minutes but more like 30 minutes. Hugo Myatt does a good job of joining the party late and gives a great performance as a snidy Arkadian. Stephen Perring is still very good as the bumbling President.

This was the last Gallifrey story for nearly five years and with the knowledge that there are more stories this ending has a far more satisfactory ending than I would have had twelve months ago. I think that had this been the last story then I would have been disappointed because it’s clear that they leaving it open for something different and this ending whilst good with series four on my iPod would have been lacking a satisfactory ending without it.

Mindbomb (2006)

The penultimate adventure of the third series is a story that is arguably the finest story so far. This sees the first Gallifreyan elections in hundreds of years. The story is written by Justin Richards (Red Dawn) and his previous two stories have been interesting but slightly complex to understand. Both The Inquiry and Pandora had lots of good things about them but this is his best offering. Over the course of the last few stories there has been a steady build up to these elections and the lack of clarity over who’s President of the High Council of Timelords needed resolving and this is where it needed to be resolved. The story has three candidates in Romana, Darkel and Matthias. It’s clear from the outset that Matthias is the one that’s going to steal the presidency. Whilst Romana and Darkel are bickering about whether certain rules apply and whether Romana is eligible to stand for office and when people become president can they excuse political prisoners and so on and so forth.

Matthias has become one the best characters of the series and his rise to the ultimate prize has been a well handled and well crafted one. He has gone from being a nice normal character to being quite a caniving one and that’s what good about him. Stephen Perring’s performances have always been solid. His slyness was on par if not ahead of Darkel’s at times and Darkel has been the prime baddie throughout. Lalla Ward is very good now that Romana is back to full health. Now that’s she an ex-President there is a different feel to the character. However the relationship between Romana and Leela has been neglected to a certain degree over the last few stories however it doesn’t mean that Louise Jameson has suffered as a result. In fact she seems to have a new lease of life following her blindness. Jameson has more to do than just say that her blade thirsts for blood. She has come on leaps and bounds recently.

The story marks a surprise return of Braxiatel who’s return well and truly comes out of the blue. The moment that it was becoming clear that he was going to be named as president and not Darkel was one of the most enjoyable moments that I can recall whilst listening to this series. The idea that he is still regarded as Chancellor before and due to some long winded reason, he is still Chancellor and becomes President. However it’s a short lived joy when he accidentally admits placing Darkel under arrest was a political point and has to rather embarrisingly let her go. It’s a this point that he starts to stumble over his words. This is when an exciting story steps up a gear and it’s not long before Darkel’s demise sets up the end of the story and also the end to the Pandora story arc well and truly. I am gutted that Darkel has gone because I thought that Lynda Bellingham was one of the best things about the series next to Romana and Leela. Her demise was quite brutal and it was possibly the only way that the character could have been written out. I’m hoping that she returns in future stories.

Despite being 75 minutes long it didn’t feel like it. I would have said closer to 50 minutes and its surprising how they fit so much in it. The story is a wonderful adventure with the political side of the series getting comfortable centre stage and not wanting to budge. After all the epic things that happened in this story its quite a interesting thing to work out just how would they end series three.

The Doctor's Wife (2011)

Now if there’s one thing that we should have learnt since the show returned in 2005 is that titles should be taken with a pinch of salt. All sorts of things went through my mind when I heard the title ‘The Doctor Dances’ in 2005 and ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ in 2008. So I was wondering what to expect from The Doctor’s Wife. Now this story is written by Neil Gaiman. A lot of people seem to be getting excited by his contribution to Doctor Who. I have to say his name means nothing to me because until it was announced that he was writing a Doctor Who story I had never heard of him. Having said that the story was clearly written by someone who knows how to tell a good story and also knows Doctor Who.

The story sees the sole of the TARDIS taken and put in a strange woman played by former Coronation Street actress. Her character is called IDRIS which is a very good character and Suranne Jones manages to play a character that has a complex idea such as the Matrix in her. Of course as we learnt with Donna and Rose that holding any part of the TARDIS in you is a bad thing and you will die as a result but this actually happened with Idris.

When the TARDIS lands on the asteroid we meet two people called Auntie and Uncle who have been cobbled together (a nod to The Brain of Morbius). I didn’t really see the point to them as they weren’t in it for very long and seemed to be discarded too easily. I did like the sudden randomness of the Ood’s appearance. It seemed like a bit of an odd thing to stick in a story (sorry I was trying to find a different way of saying this without using the word odd). The Ood has green eyes which is something that we haven’t seen before but its just to show that its under the control of House.

We get to know a bit more about the beginning of the Doctor’s time in the TARDIS. We learn that that the Doctor has had the TARDIS for over 700 years. There is also the use of a cube which is similar to the one used in the 1969 story ‘The War Games’. The idea that the TARDIS archives the old console rooms was a lovely idea but its one that for listeners of Big Finish will have heard before when we learnt that the TARDIS archives the rooms of former companions. The mere mention of secondary console rooms is a nod to fans who have been watching the show for more than six years. We get to see the old TARDIS control room which was the one used by the Eccleston/Tennant Doctors and it was good to see though I know some people who would like to have seen the classic console room. It’s odd to see the Matt Smith Doctor on the set of the old TARDIS set. The story plays with the notion that there might be Timelords about, there is a great deal of time handed over to this idea until we learn that all we have are these distress boxes that have the voices of Timelords. I did have a feeling that the Timelords were coming back and that where the story seemed to be heading but sadly it wasn’t. I do hope that they bring the Timelords back soon but at this moment in time we just have the one Timelord and the little girl who we don’t know the identity of yet.

As well as Darvill’s performance, I also liked Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and in particular Suranne Jones. I was impressed at just how good she was. Also I was surprised at Michael Sheen’s performance. I had hoped he would actually be on screen as opposed to just a voice. The voice was very good and creepy and the fact that its from a creature that just does things because is quite a terrifying idea. I thought the way that it was defeated was quite a good one because it was being so smug and clever that it hadn’t planned on Idris being on board the TARDIS and as a result of this slight oversight it was beaten and on a visual point that bit with the TARDIS energy flowing throughout the console room was one of the best directed scenes for quite sometime.

For the first time since The Christmas Invasion in 2005, we see more of the TARDIS than the console room. It was only a corridor but that is where some of the best stuff happened. It’s a running joke in Doctor Who that it’s full of scenes where people run down corridors and that they all look alike. It had a claustrophobic feel to it and that helped add to the drama. Credit to Arthur Darvil who after a off episode last week finally gets to put in a superb performance. I wish that they would do more stuff in the TARDIS. One thing I liked about Amy’s Choice was that large chunks of it were in the TARDIS and one of the things that I like about this story is that a great deal is spent in the TARDIS. Oh and I liked the green look of the TARDIS.

The idea that the TARDIS is the Doctor’s wife is the most obvious one that its amazing that its taken so long for someone to put it smack bang in the centre of the story. It took a while to get use to the idea of the matrix being a woman but it actually make sense because of the way that the Doctor has acted with the TARDIS since episode one. The TARDIS has always been talked about as an ‘old girl’ and to have it in a human form shows in a better way the emotional bond between the Doctor and machine.

I like this story very much. I was hoping that we would get something out of this story and whilst it wasn’t what I thought it would be I still enjoyed this a lot. I didn’t know about Neil Gaiman before this story but now I do and I strongly urge the producers to hire Gaiman to write further stories because I think they would be like this and that means very clever but not complicated. It’s the strongest story of the series so far.

The Shakespeare Code (2007)

The Shakespeare Code is the first adventure for Martha and it sees her going back to encounter William Shakespeare. This is the first time that Shakespeare is the centre of a story. I put it like that because back in 1965, William Shakespeare made a brief appearance but apart from that Shakespeare has been relatively overlooked in Doctor Who. Shakespeare is a figure that we think we know but not much is known about him so that’s why Gareth Roberts is able to get away with turning Shakespeare into a sort of celebrity. This is well portrayed by former Shameless actor David Lennox Kelly. In an edition of SFX Magazine, Phil Collinson says that this episode (at the time) was the most expensive episode ever and it shows.

The story is about the Carrionites a witch-like race who plan to end the world by placing a code in a new play that Shakespeare is writing. It’s a fairly good idea that is kind of buried underneath the visual imagery of the story. They somehow managed to film the scenes of the Globe Theatre in the real Globe Theatre. Not even the Oscar winning film Shakespeare in Love got to film there but Doctor Who did. In your face Hollywood!! Anyway it’s not just in the Globe Theatre that was impressive but everything else.

It’s good that Shakespeare and the Doctor get on well quite quickly, though it’s quite interesting how quickly Shakespeare gets to grip with the madness. This is cemented by the running joke is that all of the famous lines that come from Shakespeare are given to him by the Doctor. The story is a good one because it’s quite an interesting one that uses literature as bedrock of this story.

There is a slight issue that I have with the story and that is this refusal to just drop the Rose romance yet. Martha clearly has feelings for him but its obvious when their both on the bed facing each other that the Doctor isn’t entertaining the idea at this time which clearly miffs Martha. After having Rose loved up for two years I had faint hopes that Martha would be different but alas this is a RTD production so we get a love that isn’t straight forward.

David Lennox Kelly is very good as Shakespeare and having seen him in Shameless I have to say that I was impressed with how he pulled it off. Tennant and Agyeman are on good form and their relationship is better than the Tennant/Piper one despite how popular it seems to have been with the wider audience. Now this is Tennant’s second series as the Doctor it feels like he’s got a handle on it and more importantly the production team have got a handle on it.

The Shakespeare Code is a very good story. Not quite as good as Smith and Jones but its still a damn good story. All the performances are good but it’s the scenery that help sell the story and that is my abiding memory of this story. The Doctor and Martha is a worthy replacement to the Doctor and Rose.

Doomsday (2006)

The final story of the series. Rose says that this is the last story she will ever tell but in fact she’s not telling us the story. There is no narration from Rose so it’s not so much of a Companion Chronicle but more like a normal adventure. It all went wrong with Cybermen and Daleks set to destroy the world. In the trailer there is the implication that they could join forces. We are introduced to the Genesis Ark which is completely new to Doctor Who and its mystery is one thing that is good about the early stages of this episode. We are introduced to the Cult of Skaro which is a new group that above and beyond the Emperor himself which does lead to the question ‘Why have we never heard of them?’ The answer of what the Genesis Ark is turns out to be a massive prison that contains millions of Daleks. It’s Timelord technology so it’s bigger on the inside. It’s quite a good idea and it’s a useful tool for which to explain how you’re going to get more than four Daleks into the story without ruining the surprise and that is exactly what it was.

The battle between the Daleks and Cybermen is one that every Doctor Who fan in history has been praying for this but sadly it doesn’t quite match up to the expectations. I did like the initial encounter between them when the Cybermen agree with the Daleks statement that they have no concept of elegance. This is a clear contradiction that the Cybermen don’t have a sense of humour. The idea that the Daleks could wipe out the Cybermen with just one Dalek but get scared when they discover the Doctor is around is quite a funny one.

Yvonne Hartman’s death is quite sad. She is someone who went from being the boss and not caring about anything other than her job to being terrified about being turned into a Cyberman/woman. However her final appearance comes when she is defiant against the Cybermen and repeats the line she gives before being converted. It’s a sort of redemption because we get a close up of one of her eyes and there is a tear of oil.

The problem that this story has and its one that typifies the RTD era is that it gets too bogged down in the emotional side of things. When you’ve got Daleks and Cybermen fighting each other we have to stop and deal with Jackie and Pete Tyler re-uniting. The initial moment when Rose has been taken into the parallel world is understandable because they had a romance but then the next five or six minutes is given over to this. Russell T Davies seems to have an inability of finishing of a series without having to waste 10-15 minutes on emotional twaddle.

It’s a good story for Billie Piper. Many many people don’t like her and I have to admit since we have had Martha and Donna and Amy she has fallen down the rankings in my opinions but at the time I thought that the character of Rose was a breathe of fresh air and ok the romance bit started to get a bit tired towards the end but Piper did a good job in every story that she was in. The final scene between Piper and Tennant was very sad and Tennant put in a great performance in both stories. His scene with the Cult of Skaro was one of the best of the series.

Russell T Davies doesn’t give us time to catch our breathe after what being going on in Torchwood and out of nowhere (quite literally), Catherine Tate appears in a wedding dress inside the TARDIS. This is the only time that I can honestly say that I didn’t know anything about what was going to happen. There was no mention on any website about Catherine Tate appearing and so it was a truly big shock and a big way to sign of the 28th series of Doctor Who and the second in the new era.

As a episode in its own right, it’s a good one that could have done without most of the emotional stuff that we got and the Dalek and Cybermen face-off was a little bit disappointing but as a two-parter it very good. There is a lot to like and the way that they wrote Rose out of the series was very clever and a nice way of a companion to leave a series as opposed to a Leela exit.

Army of Ghosts (2006)

The final story of the series starts off with a bold statement from Ms Tyler. “This is the day t hat I die!”. The story starts off with a series of montages which shows Rose having fun with the Doctor and then the line asked by the Doctor as to how long Rose will be with him and she says “Forever”. If you weren’t aware of this being her final story then this would have been a big giveaway. This also sees the infamous Torchwood make its long awaited debut, after a series long story arc it was finally time to see what their made of.

With Rose visiting her mum, she and the Doctor get to see Ghosts that have been appearing all over the world. It’s come to the stage where no-one is scared by seeing them and take them as normal with Jackie thinking one is her father who passed away years before. Sadly we get something that became a regular for an RTD story and that is bring famous faces. In this case Derek Acorah and Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell in Eastenders.

Torchwood are very different compared to the one led by Captain Jack Harkness. This Torchwood is a group of very arrogant organisation and they feel like a bigger group that the Harkness one. There is an army in an office tower in the middle of London as opposed to a small underground base in the centre of Cardiff. I was genuinely surprised the Mickey came back. After being sealed in the Parallel World in The Age of Steel, he was the last face I expected to see.

The Sphere is something that we are told shouldn’t be there and doesn’t register on any piece of technology. It’s designed to travel through the void and allow for someone to live outside the universe without being affected by it. Its content is a mystery. Well I say a mystery what I mean is that it would only be a mystery for anyone who avoid anywhere that sold the Radio Times because they decided to put a picture of a Dalek and a Cyberman so it was just a question as to how they would appear. The Cybermen appearance was quite interesting as we could tell it was them through the plastic.

It’s funny that Freema Agyeman appears in this. I think I’m right in saying that it was this performance that got her the Martha job. She doesn’t have a particularly big role but as someone who is being controlled by the Cybermen she’s very good. Tracy Ann Oberman is surprisingly good as Yvonne Hartman. She swans around as someone who thinks she’s cleverer than everyone including the Doctor.

The cliffhanger was very good. The last five minutes or so were the best because the Cybermen finally make their appearance and the sight of hundreds of Cybermen appearing all over the world gives a great sense of how massive the invasion of the Cybermen is. Also we get to see what is in that Sphere. The sight of four Daleks flying out of the sphere was a fantastic one and one that was actually more impressive that the army of Daleks in Bad Wolf the year before.

As the opening story it sets things up very well. It’s obvious they are holding all the drama and tension until Doomsday but there is enough in this episode to keep us entertained. The build up to Billie Piper’s departure is building up well and the final story has potential to be a good send off.

The Idiots Lantern (2006)

After dealing with the Cybermen, the Doctor and Rose travel to 1952 London just before Elizabeth II became Queen. This story is written by Mark Gatiss who is someone that could best be described as having a macabre sense of humour. This story does a smart thing of making TV the baddie. The very TV that you were watching this episode on. The big name in this story is Maureen Lipman who only appears on the TV and its how she gets her victims that’s smart.

Setting it in the 1950’s is just an excuse to give Tennant a quiff and stick Piper in a big pink dress and for the pair of them to ride a moped. Does this mean that the TARDIS has an entire forecourt of mopeds and bikes somewhere. Anyway, the story sees lots of people by TV’s bought from the Magpie shop who becomes the first victim of the wire. The fact that she is dressed like the newsreaders that appeared on TV during this time adds to the creepy feel of what she does. The way that she was defeated was very clever which given the author isn’t a surprising statement. Putting on a betamax video and wipe over isn’t the sort of thing that would have been thought of by any other writer but its very clever.

The main story is about the wire’s attempt to feed off the faces of London (and then the world) but there is another story going is the Connolly family who is led by the bullish Eddie Connolly (Jamie Foreman) who regularly mocks and belittles his son Tommy (Rory Jennings). In the end Tommy stands up to him in a lovely little moment which makes everyone feel good about themselves. There was a mili-second where I felt sorry for Eddie but when you think of what he’s been like then that

It’s impressive how the production team managed to make 1950’s London come alive in 21st Century Cardiff. With houses having modern window frames and satellite dishes it’s quite an achievement to get around that. There is a part of this story which is wonderful and its when Rose loses her face. Sadly it returns but the CGI is quite good and watching how it was done on Doctor Who Confidential afterwards shows that everyone who’s name didn’t appear in the title wasn’t given the CGI treatment and would have undergone what appears to be a claustrophobic experience. The whole feel of the story is wonderful and everything worked from the sets to the acting to the story itself.

Credit to David Tennant who does a good job throughout and doesn’t seem to stop for a moment. He works well with the Tommy character and with the Rose not having a face issue it meant that the Tommy character could grow and become the temporary companion. Rory Jennings is on good form and does well with what he is given. Maureen Lipman is very good as the Wire and when you get an actress like her on screen its important to give her something good to do and she has in this story and she does it very well. As does Ron Cook (Parker in the Thunderbirds movie) who is an actor that I like and think that he does well as Magpie.

The Idiots Lantern is a good solid story. It’s not the best story of the season but its still something that will help past 40 odd minutes. Mark Gatiss is a top writer and this is another good script from him and whilst this isn’t as good as The Unquiet Dead from the previous year its still a good effort.

The Impossible Planet (2006)

The Satan Pit is a very creepy story that doesn’t have a good rating. Out of all the two-parters that the show has done since it’s return it is the one that the lowest average rating (6.15m). Also The Impossible Planet is the four least watched viewing figure (6.3m). The first time that I saw this one I liked it but not as much as other people did. It aired the day after my birthday so I was still in a good mood and having Doctor Who back on TV was still a new thing to get use to. The story is quite a dark story where the Doctor and Rose land on a Sanctuary base where the first people (I say people what I mean is aliens with spaghetti sticking out of their mouths) are the Ood. There is writing on a wall that the TARDIS cant translate and to add to their woes they have become separated from the TARDIS. The Impossible Planet title is revealed straight away in that its orbiting a black hole which as we all know is not possible. It didn’t take long for the ‘that’s Ood’ joke and it was good that they just got it out of the way.

Things start off creepy and gets worse with people hearing things and in the case of Toby Zed, seeing writing all over his body and his eyes go red. However it all disappears after Scooti’s death. Scooti’s death was quite horrific considering the timeslot. Watching Confidential afterwards it was good seeing how they achieved Scooti floating towards the Black Hole. After that the story gets even more darker with strange things happening. I liked the scene between the Doctor and Rose when they discuss having to settle down and get a mortgage and a house. It’s a nice little moment which is ruined by Rose shielding a desire to live together. I also liked the comedy moments which is what the story needed considering all the dark content going on.

The setting is very good and also the decision to totally take the TARDIS out of play is a bold but brilliant move because it’s a tool and like people argument that the sonic screwdriver is something that the Doctor uses too much the same could be said for the TARDIS and it means that the Doctor has got to use his wits and intelligence if he is going to save the day. The base design is very good and it does feel like it goes on for miles and isnt build in a BBC studio. Credit to the set designers for making it feel claustrophobic and very drab and uninspiring. Seemingly always looking of bringing things from the classic era to new Who, this story sees Gabrial Woolf who voices ??. In 1976 he famously (too older fans) voice Osirian Sutekh in the classic Pyramids of Mars. Woolf had also appeared in the Big Finish plays Arrangement for War and Thicker Than Water and has a wonderful voice so was the right choice for this story.

The Ood are a slave race and its not until Planet of the Ood two years later that this would be dealt with in the centre plot. They are a telepathic race and they are been used by the beast. They seem quite dull when they are their normal selves but when their eyes turn red that is when they become truly impressive and scary. Their importance seems quite low key at the beginning but soon become integral to the plot, credit to Matt Jones (writer) for how he did this.

Watching back when it was transmitted I wasn’t as keen on it as I had been for other stories but watching it now I think it’s a cracking good story. I’m still not sold on the cliffhanger as despite how good the build up was the final few seconds were a bit disappointing. That said it’s a good start and a highly enjoyable episode.

The Satan Pit (2006)

Now we get to what has the honour of being the least watched new Doctor Who episode (out of 76 as of May 10, 2011). This half of the story deals a lot with fear. After the lukewarm feeling I had for the cliffhanger the story plows straight into the action. The story is split into two parts with the Doctor and Ida dealing with faith and what at the bottom of the big black pit and Rose and the others dealing with the mad Ood. I found the Ood stuff to be more interesting. The Ood scuttling around in the ventilation shafts is another scary image. In retrospect of what we learn about them in Planet of the Ood there is a sense of feeling sorry for them for what happens to them.

Mr Jefferson’s sacrifice is very handled and acted out by Danny Webb (who would soon after this appear in the Big Finish play ‘The Dark Husband’). It’s quite a noble death as he chooses to die by suffication quickly than by Ood which will probably be more painful. In fact it’s the style of deaths that stands out in this story. Scooti and Toby death were both great as was Mr Jefferson’s.

Normally a Doctor Who story its about trying to escape but in this story its about staying whilst the guest stars are trying to escape. With Rose not wanting to leave the Doctor even though there’s no clear way that the Doctor could have survived the fall. The story mentions Torchwood and the more important is that Rose is told that she will die in battle. This was the last story that Billie Piper filmed before leaving the show and it’s the start of the build up to her departure.

The Doctor and Ida are separated and its quite a good way of ensuring they stay down and not have a escape plan. This is where the stuff about the devil and similar things are discussed. There’s a nice little bit discussing whether the Doctor believes anything. There’s a lot about faith in Tennant stories and in a show lead by Russell T Davies (an atheist) its quite a unusual thing to see. I also found the Doctor’s goodbye to Rose to be quite sad. The CGI Devil is very good and looks better than something you would get from a Hollywood movie. The scene with the Doctor and the Devil is very good because it’s David Tennant doing all the talking and trying to work out why he was kept alive after falling to the bottom of the pit.

I thought that this part wasn’t as good as The Impossible Planet but it was still a better two parter than the ratings suggest and that I remember from the first time I saw it. It just goes to show that ratings aren’t the be all and end all. However what was about to come would make this two parter seem like the best Doctor Who story ever.

Love & Monsters (2006)

Love and Monsters is the only story that in the new era of Doctor Who that has made me so angry that I was livid. Seriously, never before or since has an episode got to me like this. I thought that I was above it. This is the first of the Doctor-lite episodes that we would become accustom to. The story features very little of either David Tennant or Billie Piper. This seems to have been a decision made because of the filming schedule. This story also sees the appearance of the Abzorbaloff which was the creation of a Blue Peter winner. The story is centred on Elton Pope played by Marc Warren.

To highlight how things have been happening to Elton they wheel out all the Earth bound stories so far. First there is Rose where Autons came back and we get to see Autons break through the shop windows again except we see brand new stuff with Elton in it. Then there is Aliens of London where the ship crashed into Big Ben and then The Christmas Invasion. It’s this that leads to L.I.N.D.A (which gets mentioned in Time Crash). I quite liked L.I.N.D.A because it was a fun little group. They might have been a bit odd but there was a sadness to them because they all have their sad stories. I

Peter Kay is perhaps the biggest name being such a big comedian and being one of the most talked about names in the UK at the time. He plays Victor Kennedy who is the Abzorbaloff. I really like Peter Kay and thought that he should have been given something better. He was trying to do serious but it didn’t quite work and so his contribution should have been more light hearted. Kennedy comes across as a powerful person who is going to use L.I.N.D.A to find the Doctor. He somehow has files from Torchwood files but this is never fully explained. Also there’s not proper explanation how in the scene after Kennedy makes his appearance the room their in turns into a classroom. Or why he’s making the rest of the group come up with the plan when he clearly has the intelligence.

I really don’t like Elton because I think the role has been badly cast. Don’t get me wrong, Marc Warren is a good actor but didn’t really do well in this role. Jackie Tyler makes a return and becomes the love interest zzzzzzzzzzzz. It’s at this stage that any sign of interest that I had left had well and truly gone. Even watching five years later I could feel my blood boiling and getting angry. Whilst watching Jackie and Elton flirting with each other I found myself wondering if I was still watching Doctor Who or whether I’d ended watching some god awful ITV2 or MTV monstrosity.

I did like the design of the Abzorbaloff and despite a kid designing it was quite a good design. It’s just a shame the actor in the role wasn’t on usual form. The idea of an alien absorbing people isn’t original as the theme was discussed in School Reunion. The story does pick up when the Doctor and Rose turn up. It’s at this stage that a glimmer of faith returned. The story of Elton meeting the Doctor as a child is where the interest really was and it was quite sad. The reason why he turned up in Elton’s house, a shadow had arrived and killed his mom. Now I’m sorry but if someone was standing over my mom’s dead body I’d be as p****d as anything and wouldn’t think of the Doctor in a good way. It’s another thing that’s wrong with Love and Monsters. The last thing we see is that Elton and Ursula are going to form a relationship. Human and slab of concrete. It’s the most stupid ridiculous and pointless thing I have ever seen.

Love and Monsters is a terrible story that has very little good going for it and is arguably the weakest story since the show returned. Actually, scratch that it IS the worst since it returned.

Fear Her (2006)

Back in 2005, London was awarded the honour of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games and this planted an idea in Russell T Davies’ mind and he then passed this idea onto Life on Mars co-creator Matthew Graham and the end result is the cheap Doctor Who episode Fear Her. I say cheap because the previous series saw Boomtown use very little in the way of special effects and this meant the money could be used in the finale. Fear Her is much better than the previous episode but it’s not hard to be better.

The main issue that I have with this story is that it’s dull. Granted there are some scary moments and the idea that drawings can come to life is quite an interesting one but sadly it’s not enough to make a show out of. There were some amusing moments such as Rose digging up the council road and the Doctor making everyone put a finger to their lips. I also thought the child was a tad bit annoying. Granted most kids on TV get on my nerves but the thing about the girl in this story was that there was no charisma or personality that came from her. Even when she was herself again there was nothing there which was a real shame.

This is Rose’s story for the first time since her debut adventure. With the Doctor out of the picture (or in it in this case!) it gives Billie Piper the opportunity to wield an axe into a door in a homage to The Shining. She’s the one that works things out and finds a solution to the problems. This isn’t something that happens very often in Doctor Who and it was quite a refreshing change. The only time that the story gets anywhere near entertaining is towards the end when the Doctor is running with the Olympic Flame towards the Torch to signal the start of the games. With just over a year to go before the Games begin, the stuff in the ‘Olympic stadium’ do look a little cheap but seeing as when this was filmed the stadium wouldn’t be built for another four years I think we might be able to let them off for that.

David Tennant doesn’t particularly shine in this episode but he’s not terrible and potters about until he’s required to do his running thing and firework interpreting at the end. I did quite like the bit in the TARDIS when he says that he was a dad once. It was a little nod to long term fans who like me think that Susan as the Doctor’s Granddaughter would of course have had a kid.

The final minute or so is a lovely set up to the finale to the series. The Doctor is able to look into some fireworks and tell that “something’s coming”. It’s an ominous start to the final story. With Matthew Graham set to return to the Doctor Who writing table it’s good to know that when the history of Doctor Who is written for the final time that this won’t be the only thing Graham will be judged on. It’s a cheap episode that unlike the previous year’s adventure doesn’t have any interesting characters and is marginally ahead of Love and Monsters.

Appropriation (2006)

We are halfway through the third series and its business as usual as the political part of Gallifrey takes centre stage. It’s all gone wrong with Gallifrey in ruins and Romana isn’t in any condition to do anything and she is deposed by Chencellor Valyez who is becoming my new favourite character. He starts off as acting President but wants the role, minus the acting part. However this is just the start of the problems for Romana. Darkel becomes much more of an important character again. After building momentum in trying to become President in Imperiatrix, she sort of had to take a back seat during the Pandora story. Now she returns to the main action and she is superb throughout. One of the best things they did was to bring Darkel into the series and give her a bit more background than what we got in Trial.

There is a wonderful moment when they are talking about Gallifreyan lawn and I was just bemused by the whole thing. You just have to go along with it however due to the performances I believed it. There was a sense that they were making it up on the spot but regardless of this the whole political one ups-manship made this play thoroughly enjoyable and something you couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything else. The story saw the return of Colin Baker as Commander Maxil (from Arc of Infinity). Despite hum not being central to the plot it was a nice nostalgia kick to older fans and it’s always good to hear Colin Baker.

The main cast all put in great performances especially Lalla Ward who’s fallen from grace somewhat over the last few stories and it gives Lalla Ward something different to do from having to act statesman-like. The character of Cardinal Mathias (Stephen Perring) who spends part of the story as a mediator to some alien races. Those scenes were a nice sort of pause from the main action. But what I found to be best about the character is how he starts of as a good character but manifests into a devious character and whilst I saw it coming from a mile away it was still well handled. I think that Louise Jameson puts in a good performance. I cant really say more than that because my attention was focused more on Romana and Darkel and the political fighting between the two of them. I think this was one of those stories that sees Leela take a back seat.

Appropriation is by far the best story of the series so far. I have already stated my preference of t Paul Sutton has written a solid story and has given the actors some wonderful dialogue and there was not science jargon like in Warfare. The next story looks like it will be even better as elections are set to take place and there’s no guarantee of who will win. It looks like the last two stories are going to be the best yet.

The Curse of the Black Spot (2011)

After the dramatic and epic start to the 32nd series of Doctor Who, it’s time top slow things down a bit. In the same year as Pirates of the Caribbean comes out. It seems an opportune moment for the Doctor to visit the high seas. The story is set aboard a ship which is being terrorised by a Siren who seemingly marks your hand with a black spot which the crew thinks is a curse (see what they did with the title?). The Siren is played by Lily Cole (nope, me neither) and the Siren turns out to be a medic who is trying to treat the crew and their primitive minds think that it’s a curse. I did find it funny how she got angry and when it’s revealed she’s a medic then its just that she turns into an over protective matron. Imagine Hattie Jacques with fangs.

There are a few issues that I have with this story and the first being the slow start. I know I wrote at the beginning that it was time to slow things down a bit not to this degree. It takes a while to get the story going and my interest. I also thought that Rory was badly used in this story. He gets marked too quickly and starts acting silly whenever the Siren appears. It was only when the story moved to the sick bay that Rory’s use became sensible. Another issue is with the ending, so Henry Avery (Hugh Bonneville) who is a 17th Century pirate and goes from being reunited with his son (who’s lost his mother), boards the TARDIS which doesn’t blow his mind and then starts to fly the spaceship. This last point would have made more sense if we had seen the Doctor showing Henry (or were the Silence in the room?).

The casting for this story was quite big. Hugh Bonneville (Henry) was the biggest name as he has recently appeared in the ITV1 drama Downton Abbey and the BBC4 mockumentary Twenty-Twelve. As Henry Avery, he is very good and is a believeable character. I did feel that introducing the kid was a bit of a cop-out and slightly humanised the character. Speaking of the kid he was just irrelevant. Played by Oscar Lloyd (recently in Emmerdale), the character was there so that Henry had someone to be with at the end of the episode. Lee Ross is another ex-soap star having previous appeared in Eastenders and his character was fairly standard. According to Wikipedia, Lily Cole is a model and it’s that reason why she didn’t say a word. To be fair it was actually dramatically a good reason for the Siren not to say anything because it gave the character a sense of mystery.

Just in case we were getting withdrawal symptons from last week, there were nods to that story in TCOTBS. The Cyclops lady appears in the timber of the ship when Amy wakes up and the TARDIS scanner is still trying to work out whether Amy is pregnant or not. You get the sense that Amy is going to tell the Doctor that he will be killed by the Astronaut.

Apart from my main concerns about the use of Rory. All three of the cast put in good performances. Another story and another hat for Matt Smith to try on. Thankfully it didn’t last long. Karen Gillan unusually got to do some sword fighting but apart from had to do the loving wife bit who was teary eyed over Amy possibly losing Rory.

Whilst TCOTBS isn’t the best story of the series, it’s a good single episode. Yes it takes a while to get going and they use Rory badly but everything else is very good. It’s good that they filmed on a ship as it gave the clostrophic feel that you need if your filming this sort of thing. Visually the story was also another strong one and credit should go to everyone involved. TCOTBS is sadly going to be regarded as the least favourite not because its rubbish but compared to other stories it doesn’t have the dramatic punch that other stories will have. Take next week’s episode with the curious title ‘The Doctor’s Wife’. Oh boy!!!

Warfare (2006)

The second story of the third season of Gallifrey is where the Pandora storyline ends and this unofficial two-parter reaches a conclusion. The story (written by Stewart Sheargold) sees Romana skulking around whilst Pandora lives it up (so to speak) in her quarters. The story does a good job of keeping the momentum and pace going and ultimately for not dragging the arc theme out too much. The problem I have with this story is that it spends a lot of time confusing me with the talk of things that I had trouble understanding. I prefer the Gallifrey series when it goes into The West Wing territory but not so much when it descends into technical jargon.

I understand the need to use the science because it’s a sci-fi show but sometimes the series turns it up to 11. I did like every second that Mary Tamm was involved in the story. Mary Tamm shone in the role of Pandora. The only downside to the ending of this Pandora story arc is that we probably won’t hear from Mary Tamm again. Louise Jameson is very good as well. Now that Leela is permanently blind, it’s great how they despite this major problem for the character that it has kept the character the same and not made her all sombre. Lalla Ward is very good and it’s the first time that the character of Romana hasn’t felt infallible. The scenes between Ward and Tamm were very enjoyable.

The stories supporting characters were all very good. Narvin (Sean Carlsen) continues to impress me. He started as a fringe character but his development over the course of the stories he has been in has been well handled. I also found Chancellor Valyes to be very good and well played by Steven Wickham. When someone has a great voice then its fantastic when they are in a scene. Another good character was Lord Mathias as played by Stephen Perring who in the main range is Kro’ka. His potential was plain to see.

All in all, I wasn’t as keen on Warfare as I had been for other stories. Despite all the jargon that was in this story it wasn’t boring and that was partly due to the strong characters and the actors playing them. In this series, one thing is for sure is that they ended the Pandora stuff at the right time and they ended it in a sensible and enjoyable way. However the fallout of this story arc will spill over into Appropriation and it looks like The West Wing side of Gallifrey will take centre stage. Fantastic.

The Tomfiles: #11 - Doctor Who Abroad

Doctor Who is a thoroughly British affair. Over the course of 32 series, the show has filmed all over the UK where in recent years the show has been filmed in Cardiff. However sometimes the show decided to get on a plane and film as Matt Smith said ‘Somewhere new’. Remarkably in the first 26 years, the show only ventured on foreign soil three time and that was over the space of six years. Recently the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory have been having adventures in the good old US of A but is filming abroad a good idea or does it ruin the flow of a story or even a season?

The first time that Doctor Who was filmed abroad was in the 1979 adventure ‘City of Death’ where the Fourth Doctor and Romana travelled to Paris in France for four episodes. The story itself is a very good story despite it coming from the Douglas Adams era where comedy was a big part of the show. There are large chunks of location filming to help establish the show’s setting, however it is essentially just the Doctor and Romana running around Parisian landmarks but its filmed beautifully.

Arc of Infinity was the second adventure to travel abroad but the show still stays in Europe by filming in Amsterdam. Like City of Death, the story features a lot of running around but there are still the familiar sights. To be fair to AOI, there is a bit more to the filming that running around. There is some standing about and sitting in a café but more importantly the big finale scene is on location with the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa catching up with Omega and shooting him. In terms of purpose to the story, the scenes in AOI are far better than COD.

Two years later The Two Doctors would be filmed in Seville Spain for reasons no-one can work out. It doesn’t offer anything to the story and you could have filmed it anywhere in the UK. There are some beautiful shots of Seville which makes it look a beautiful place. However ultimately the purpose of the location is dubious at best as a result it’s not entirely satisfactory.

It was rumoured that Doctor Who would have gone to Asia in the abandoned 1986 season which would have seen the Autons running amok in Thailand or somewhere near. Who knows whether this would have been a good idea or not but we’ll never know.

It would be eleven years before Doctor Who would film abroad and this time it would be different because it would be in the TV Movie where the story was filmed in Canada doubling for San Francisco. It feels more like a US drama than a British one which makes it stand out in the history of Doctor Who. There are some lovely scenes but as most of it is filmed at night unfortunately I don’t think it shows off the city as well as it could have done. Had the ‘pilot’ turned into a series then there would undoubtably have been more location filming and chances to see more of the scenery.

During the early years of Doctor Who’s return featured filming switching between Cardiff (and surrounding areas) and London and during the Tennant era there was only one time where it was based outside of the UK and that occurred in Fires of Pompeii where the show went to actually went to the same studio in Italy where the HBO/BBC drama Rome was filmed. This was a fantastic idea and one of the reasons why the story is so good is because of the location stuff. It would have been silly to try and replicate those scenes in the UK because it wouldn’t have been as good. It’s one of the best uses of foreign filming so far. The Eleventh Doctor would be the Fifth actor to film abroad with two episodes being filmed in Croatia. The first episode was Vampires in Venice where the filming is beautfil and does create a different impression to the series. Despite Vampires of Venice and Vincent and the Doctor being filmed in the same place it doesn’t show in the stories. It’s quite impressive how they manage to do this and the best thing is that I wasn’t thinking about whether it made sense but just being bowled over by the story and enjoying the filming.

The most recent excursion out of the UK saw the show go to the country with the biggest fan base outside of the UK. The show went to America and filmed in the Utah desert. Despite it being a desert the filming was very good and helped create the impact that the show needed to set the current series up. The reason for the story being set in America was plausible and so the location stuff needed to compliment it and it certainly did that in this story with some fantastic arial shots. Much better than what you would get here.

The issue of coincidence occurs whenever the show films abroad because some argue that its convenient that the aliens would invade/attack in a foreign country but then I take the approach that it’s no more convenient than aliens attacking/invading just the UK when there are bigger and more powerful countries that they could pick. I think that providing the reason for setting a story in a foreign country makes sense then it doesn’t make it any less plausible setting a story in South Africa or Finland or even Vanuatu than it would be setting it in the UK.

Filming abroad always gives a Doctor Who story an international feeling and with the show popular in all corners of the world it’s only right that occasionally the show ventures outwards to embrace that popularity and more importantly the cash. Recently Steven Moffat said in a newspaper article that £300,000 of the £1 million that it costs to make a Doctor Who episode comes from merchandise. I wonder how much of the remaininig £700,000 comes from international TV stations. Going beyond that the issue of filming abroad shouldn’t really exist and occasional excursions outside of the UK are a good thing and should be a regular thing.

Arc of Infinity (1983)

Arc of Infinity is the opening story to the 20th Season of Doctor Who and it’s the story where Doctor Who goes dutch. This is the second time in as many years that Doctor Who went abroad following the 1979 story ‘City of Death’. The bonus about filming abroad is that it gives the story a different feel in a way that we don’t get when a story is based on another planet where it feels exactly like a BBC studio. The baddie in this story is Omega who previously appeared in 1973 story ‘The Three Doctors’ and would feature in the 2003 Big Finish play ‘Omega’. At the end of the previous story (Time-Flight), Tegan had been left behind and so it was just the Doctor and Nyssa which is a superb combination as you will know if you listen to any Big Finish play featuring this pair.

The Omega we get in this story is much better and stronger than the 1973 version. In The Three Doctors, Omega is a mad and ranting character than doesn’t seem to actually do very much. This time he’s given much more scope and we actually get an Omega that poses much more of a threat to the story than before.

Whilst the location stuff is very well shot and there is a lot of it. I feel that after a while there is only so much running about that I could take. Thankfully it’s replaced in Part Four with some fine chasing between the Doctor/Nyssa/Tegan and Omega with the ultimate showdown. However the location stuff is a lot more interesting than the studio work. The problem with filming in studio is that there is only so much that could be done and there is more running about in very narrow and long corridors.

The story isnt perfect. The cliffhanger of episode one has taken on a silly feel to it with the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker here as Maxill) shooting the current Doctor. Back in 1983 it would have been a good cliffhanger but sadly since Colin was cast as the Doctor there have been jokes about Baker trying to get the job early and other such jokes. I also found Robin to be utterly irritating. I just found him to be a downer and also slow scenes down. On the other hand his friend and Tegan’s cousin Colin was ok but unfortunately has to look a bit possessed and doesn’t really pull it off. However they all pale into insignificance when it comes to the Ergon who are just rubbish and rubbish to a degree that I didn’t think was possible. They just ruin any drama that had been built up.

As this story is the return of Tegan it’s interesting that she spends a large portion of the story separated from the Doctor and Nyssa. In fact it’s episode two before she makes an appearance. It is quite funny looking at the Doctor’s face with the prospect of Tegan re-joining the TARDIS crew. I remember watching Time-Flight and being shocked at her sudden departure (not realising it was part of JNT’s plan) and was glad when she returned.

Michael Gough returns to Doctor Who after his 1966 stint as the Celestial Toymaker he plays Heddin who is portrayed as a good guy but it turns out is a traitor and has been working with Omega. Gough’s performance was very good and was great to watch. Colin Baker is ok as Maxill but my attitude is based against his performances as the Doctor and this one is more subdued and is slightly ruined by having to hold that bloody helmet everywhere because it was too big to get through the doors without the need to stoop.

There is a lot going on because as well the finding a plausible reason for setting the story in Amsterdam, Johnny Byrne (writer) has to bring Omega back, the Timelords and Tegan and credit to Byrne he does a good job. It doesn’t feel like he’s rushed things or added too much to the story and it moves at a cracking pace with some wonderful scenes. I really like Arc of Infinity, it’s a good story that is made even stronger by the location filming. The filming is put to better use than in City of Death.

Arc of Infinity is a strong season opener which mixes the filming in Amsterdam with the story very well and with this season set to feature monsters from the Doctor’s past in every story this is perhaps the best story of the season and that’s not a very comforting statement.

42 (2007)

42 is a story that tries to be different by having the story play out in real time. A typical 21st century episode of Doctor Who is usually around the 42 minute mark so that the BBC can plug their programmes. Written by Torchwood producer Chris Chibnall, I was fairly excited about this episode especially as it came after a mini-break. Sadly however it wasn’t to be what I was expecting.

Firstly the story is dull. It’s almost as it RTD thought of the title and thought ‘That’ll do, we’ll just bodge a story together’. With 42 minutes until the ship goes into the sun, there is suppose to be a sense of tension and finding time moving quickly, yet with this story it was moving slow that it was felt you could get out and walk and you’d make it. Then Martha spends a chunk of the episode going around with that gonk who appears in Waterloo Road answering a series of questions to get through a door, like it’s the Crystal Maze their on.

There are some good things about this episode. Visually it’s amazing and inside the spaceship is also pretty good as it creates the impression that the ship is out of control. It’s just everything else doesn’t work. Michelle Collins doesn’t do it for me especially as when I see her I think of Cindy Beale in Eastenders even though it must have been a decade she was in that show. Her performance in this was mediocre and wasn’t particularly strong. On the other hand, David Tennant and Freema Agyeman are superb in this. Despite being stuck with the gameshow role in this episode there are a few chances for Freema Agyeman to show how good she is. I thought Tennant was good because all the jokiness had to be put to one side and the Doctor gets taken over with the light and the image of him with the light coming out of his eyes was a truly horrific moment. There is a sense that he was shook by what happened which isn’t normally what happens to the Doctor. However we sit through 40+ minutes of dullness before we get to the thrilling stuff and it’s the continuation of the Saxon story-arc. Was it intentional for Martha’s mum to be quite so dislikeable? I only ask because every time she has been on screen I just get wound up as if she’s been designed to increase my blood pressure.

42 is a disappointment and is the weakest story of the season. It does very little drama wise with the supporting cast not doing what they are suppose to do. Chris Chibnall is a good writer but on this occasion he has delivered us a dud.

Day of the Moon (2011)

I came to the conclusion after watching Day of the Moon that Doctor Who is slowly starting to turn into Lost and by that I mean more answers than questions. The story continues several months after the cliffhanger and the episode takes on a decidedly dark tone with Amy and Rory been ‘killed’ with River Song falling from top floor of a building and the Doctor has been chained up and is about to be put in a sort of prison. Now it seems like Canton Delware III has turned against the Doctor but oh no, rather amusing he’s working with the Doctor. So Amy and Rory aren’t really dead and the Doctor isn’t as chained up as everyone thinks and by chance the TARDIS is invisible and kept in the prison and they manage to move the TARDIS to the position where River is falling and fall into the swimming pool. All before the titles. Hugely disappointing. So at the end of the previous episode Amy tells the Doctor that she’s pregnant and then she decides she’s made a mistake.

Thankfully that’s all that is wrong with the episode. From that point the story continues the drama. There is a lot of things in this story that I did like though and it was the idea that that the silence have been around since the dawn of time and it just appeared in my mind. The Silence suddenly appearing in the TARDIS was well done. The Children’s home is very scary and the bloke that is ‘running’ it is equally creepy. The sight of the walls having writing of ‘get out’ and other stuff added to the sense that it wasn’t the best place in America to be. The way things just happened like Amy went from having no marks on her body to having dozens was well done by the directing. I also thought the sight of all the Silence-ites hanging from the roof were fantastic.

The scene with the Doctor standing up to the Silence was a really good climax to the story and we got to see River kick some silence backside but the way the Silence were beat was very clever indeed. It uses the landing on the moon to essentially make everyone see every single silent. Brilliant. I did like it how the Doctor talked about having some adventures before finding out about the little girl. It’s a word with the viewer about the fact that normal service will be resumed with the dark and intense storylines taking a back seat for a couple of weeks. The very end of the episode came totally out of the blue. So this little girl that had appeared in the spacesuit turns out to be a Timelord, time-tot, time-girl or something like that. What will she turn out to be? Her granddaughter? No, but then again I don’t know what its suppose to be but this line does kind of back it up a little.

Doctor: Incredibly strong and running away! I like her

Another question is ‘Is Amy pregnant?’ and also ‘why did the pictures of Amy appear in that room in the children’s home?’ Hopefully these questions will be answered soon.
The performances are very good starting with Arthur Darvill who plays the jealous husband very well. When listening to Amy talking she thinks he talking about the Doctor and it turns out she’s talking about him. This nastier side of Rory is quite a refreshing change. Stuart Milligan isn’t as involved in the story and is reduced to a comedy role in this episode but its still a good performance and it’s great to think that the President of the United States was travelling in the TARDIS. I also thought that Karen Gillan also put in a good performance as did Matt Smith.

Day of the Moon is a good end to the two parter and after the wobbly start to the episode it picks up and ends on a high note. The Doctor’s trip to America was a worthwhile one and it’s a cracking way of starting the 32nd series of Doctor Who. I just hope that the rest of the series (both halves) live up to the standard that this story has set.