Series 6

Ok, series 5 is over, it is now time for series 6, myself and the staff here at TARDISmania will bring you up to date information for the upcoming series.Here is what we know about the series so far:

Confirmed cast:

Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith

Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
River Song - Alex Kingston
Eric - Nick Malinowski
Older Benjamin - Steve North
TBA - Michael Gambon
TBA - Katherine Jenkins
TBA - Danny Horn
TBA - Laura Rogers
 
Episodes:
 
Number:                  Title:                             Writer:                  
Special                                                           Steven Moffat          
1                                                                    Steven Moffat
2
3                       The House of Nothing            Neil Gaiman            
4 (part 1)                                      
5 (part 2)
6
7
8 (part 1)                                                         Matthew Graham
9 (part 2)                                                         Matthew Graham
10
11                    Century House                         Tom MacRae            
12 (part 1)                                                       Steven Moffat           
13 (part 2)                                                       Steven Moffat            
 
That's all so far, lets hope more info will come out soon. Can't wait to see who River Song actually is!

Series 4 Episode 1: Partners in Crime

Partners in crime was quite a good start to the last series for David Tennant, although the beginning was a bit boring with us not knowning what the Doctor was doing, but it worked out nonoftheless It's hard to imagine a TV event more hotly anticipated in our house than the start of a new series of Doctor Who. It's one of the few things that pulls us all together to watch in the traditional "family viewing" scenario of days gone by. Along with that anticipation, and excitement built to melting point by weeks of trailers and press clips, not to mention editors lucky enough to be invited to previews (hmph!), there's always a small frisson of fear. Have RTD and his experienced production team pulled it off again? What will Donna be like? Is there anything to DISlike about the show? Well yes, now that you come to mention it. There was ONE thing...
And I might as well get it out of the way first, because it was pretty much the ONLY thing I didn't like about last night's opener. The new theme tune. I mean, it's "OK" - and it's true that I've rarely liked changes to the theme tune on first hearing. I may grow to like it more in the coming weeks, but I don't think I'll ever not miss the stirring, loud, insistent brass note that has now been taken out in favour of a bit more synthetic drumming.
I wrote earlier that there's always a slight worry about whether Doctor Who can ever be as good as your expectations for it, but in the past this has rarely if ever been a problem in those episodes written by RTD (and as Anna has already pointed out, he's doing a lot more of the writing this time round). Davies has an innate grasp of humour, indeed of entertainment in general. He knows how to keep the pace up, how to amuse, when to turn the dramatic screws. His stuff just works. The first few minutes, where the Doctor and Donna were both on the trail of Adipose Industries but kept missing each other by millimetres or milliseconds was very cleverly done, but also very cleverly not OVERdone, as so much farce can be. A little goes a long way and once again Davies understands that implicitly.
When they eventually did meet, having this take place across the scene of the action was a masterstroke. Those of you who watched Doctor Who Confidential will know that Catherine Tate came up with her mime in the absence of any advice or direction - she winged it, basically - which I thought was pretty impressive.
Finally, the unexpected (and closely guarded) appearance of Rose at the end of last night's episode had us all scratching our heads. How has she managed to return from exile in an alternate universe? The answer was hinted at as she turned and walked away into nothingness. Has Rose discovered a gateway, or a gating technology, between the universes? We know we'll find out sometime during this series - during which two other old companions will rejoin the TARDIS too.
So all in all a cracking start to the 2008 series. If this episode has set the bar for the next 12 then we're in for some quality television and - is it too early to suggest? - possibly the best Doctor Who series ever.

Rating: 10/10

Series 3 Episode 11/12/13: Utopia/ The Sound of Drums/ Last of the Time Lords

This finale is the weakest entry in Russell Davies' final three-part story arc that serves as the finale of the third season of Doctor Who. However, there's still some damn fine stuff here, with plenty of great developments that will likely play a part in episodes next season (and perhaps beyond). As finales go, it's perhaps something of a let down, but by no means a bad way to go out.
Perhaps the biggest misstep in this episode is having The Doctor spend much of it as a computer-generated 900-year-old version of himself. The final episode of Doctor Who should really have as much Doctor as possible, and that means not swapping David Tennant out for an odd Gollum-like CGI beastie.
There's also the questionable "I believe in fairies!" moment where the Doctor somehow taps into the psychic energy of the entire human race and magically transforms back into his young and healthy form. This is logically muddy and seems quite out of place in the traditionally more rational and (at least nominally) scientific explanations found in the series. There's also some fairly weak Messianic allusions being drawn that also don't fit well with the character. Though, to be fair, the Doctor does seem happy that humanity has mostly forgotten him when it's all over.
 
The episode also has some very nice codas, including a great moment between Martha and The Doctor which serves as a terrific counterpoint to Rose's farewell. We haven't seen the last of Martha, but it's important for her character to separate herself from The Doctor at this time. It leaves The Doctor as he often is, totally alone. At least until the final moments where the next Christmas Special is set up…
 
Rating: 8/10

Series 3 Episode 10: Blink

Blink was a truely brilliant episode, it was perfect,  Doctor Who has told a number of supremely clever time travel stories over the years. However, even a series with as many high points as this, "Blink" stands out as one of its finer moments. This episode comes from the mind of Steven Moffat, who brought us last season's also brilliant "The Girl in the Fire Place." It's similar to last season's "Love and Monsters," an episode that had very little of The Doctor and Rose. Here we don't even see Martha and The Doctor except on a DVD until late in the episode.
Filling in as the star of the episode is Carey Mulligan as "Sally Sparrow," a photographer interested in an old house. She begins receiving messages from The Doctor, who is trapped in 1969. They arrive in a variety of ways - from a rock being throw at her, writing on old walls, and in "easter eggs" on DVDs. When people start going missing around her, she starts getting messages from them as well. If all of this sounds involved, it is, but it's also told in an incredibly elegant way, never leaving you confused as to how whatever happened just happened. The logic might be strained, but the Doctor nips the doubt in the bud with a humorous explanation of "timey-wimey" things.
Normatively this episode is ingenious, investing us in a character we've never met, but suddenly feel has been around a lot longer. She loses an old friend and has the potential of a new boyfriend snatched from her in mere moments. All the while, the episode is making us question the presence of statues - and whether that slight movement we thought we detected was real after all. It's this concept that makes this episode's enemy, "the weeping angels," a stroke of real genius.

Rating: 1500/10

Series 3 Episode 8/9: Human Nature/ The Family of Blood

I loved every moment in this episode, a mysterious man named John Smith who is a school teacher in 1913.Last week, I stated that depending on how the second half of the “Human Nature/Family of Blood” storyline turned out, that “Doctor Who” could have another instant classic story on its hands.
Well, I’m here to tell you–the new series has another instant classic on its hands.“The Family of Blood” is a solid, entertaining and worthy second-half to “Human Nature.” It’s a story that not only delivers on the promise of part one, but it clears the high bar set by a mile. This is classic “Doctor Who” in every sense of the word. The thing is–it doesn’t follow the usual pattern of a classic “Doctor Who” story. At it’s core, this story is about exploring exactly who is the Doctor. It’s a story about trying to answer the central question of the show–”Who is the Doctor?” And in the course of these 90 minutes, we learn a lot about the Doctor.

Simply put, this is “Doctor Who” at its absolute best. It’s a story that’s entertaining, edge of your seat and full of authentic emotion. It examines the fundamental nature of who the Doctor is and its heart-breaking to see that by reverting from Smith to the Doctor, he will save the world but condemn himself to a life of loneliness. I can see threads of what Davies is trying to do this season for a theme–the consequences of being the last of his kind in the universe and the hope there may be another Time Lord out there. It’s a lot more subtle than the Saxon references and it may be the best on-going thread the new series has done. (Of course, my thought on that could change based on the next few episodes…but I have faith in the production team).


Rating: 10/10

Series 3 Episode 7: 42

Terrible episode, I hated every minute of it, for most of it didn't make sense, and the episode is very bland. Stories in which the events that happen on-screen take the same amount of time as the audience spends invested in the film or television program are nothing new. It happened in the classic “High Noon” (the original, not any of the substandard remakes) and viewers can see it unfolding each week on the hit series “24.”
But to have a story unfold in “real time” is something new and different for “Doctor Who” and something that couldn’t have effectively happened in the original series. Building to a cliffhanger every 24 or so minutes wouldn’t have allowed the “real time” concept to work quite as effectively as it does here.
So, it’s interesting that even though the central hook of “42″ is something that could only happen on the new series, the episode itself would be firmly grounded in the conventions of the classic series. And that this hybrid of new and old would make for one of the most effective and entertaining stories of series three and David Tennant’s run as the Doctor.

So overall, the worse episode ever written.

Rating: 2/10

Series 3 Episode 6: The Lazarus Experiment

At the end of the day, the driving force behind the entire history of Doctor Who is the "hide behind the couch" monster that The Doctor and his companions face. Aliens, mutants, robots, and the occasional "might actually be The Devil" beasties have scarred many a young fan of the series. This episode does not have aims much loftier than "give the Doctor and Martha a big bad monster to face" - and to that end it does its job quite well.
The enemy, in the form of an arachnid (didn't we just see one of these recently?) mutant mad scientist named Dr. Lazarus, is one of the better critters cooked up in this reinvention of the series. While the effects are still not quite up to par with something you'd see on American television, they are quite effective. To be fair, I can't think of a single show on American television that tries to pull off anything as elaborate or as outlandish as the monsters, aliens and environments you see in Doctor Who on a regular basis.
 
Martha once again proves she's willing to throw herself into the action, refusing to abandon The Doctor when he's alone with Lazarus. For the final battle, her sister joins in and the two of them manage to lure Lazarus into a church where the Doctor brings him down with ultrasonic organ music in a gothically inspired sequence. It was predictable that The Doctor would change his mind and decide to bring Martha along for more adventures, but it's still fairly clear that she wants to be more than she is in his eyes. It's fun to watch this relationship develop and gradually change, and makes it somewhat less painful that Rose isn't around anymore.


Rating: 4/10

Series 3 Episode 4/5: Daleks in Manhattan/ Evolution of the Daleks

On paper, this all sounds cool. The Doctor and Martha in 1930s Manhattan, facing off against the Daleks. There's a tip to the deeper mythology of the show, as these Daleks are part of "The Cult of Skaro" - a reference to the Dalek home world. There's the new "Human Dalek," chases through the sewers and battles in the Empire State Building. And yet, it all comes across a bit…flat.
This episode still comes across quite a bit better than the previous installment of the two parter. There's some fun stuff here as the "Human Dalek" essentially is won over by its own absorbed humanity and decides to work with The Doctor, turning the other Daleks and their pig-man henchmen against them. It's also fun to watch Martha in action, as she is shaping up to be quite a capable companion.
What doesn't work that well are the Pig Men and the back and forth between the rest of the Daleks. Solomon being exterminated lacks the punch it probably intended, and the sense of jeopardy for all the humans in the Hooverville just isn't there. Maybe the Daleks have been trotted out one too many times in the new series for them to have any level of menace left. After the massive battle finishing out the second season, this episode just lacks the punch it needs to continue the level of menace the Daleks are supposed to attain.

While this episode and the one preceding it are mostly "miss" episodes, there's still a lot to be said for how much the core strength of the series sustains even lackluster episodes. Tennant is excellent throughout. His developing chemistry with Martha is fun to watch, as are The Doctor's reactions to lines such as "Everybody has someone out there for them." It's also a generally good time when a series can have its hero battling the fallout of a "Time War" in the Hoovervilles of 1930s Manhattan. Even if this episode has a lot in it that doesn't work, much of the criticism comes from the unusually high expectations set by what is generally a terrific series.
 
Rating: 6/10

Series 3 Episode 3: Gridlock

There are a number of wonderful ideas at play in this episode of Doctor Who, the first great episode of the third season. First and foremost is the obvious nod to Rose as the Doctor heads back to New New York, and Martha realizes she's just visiting all of the places The Doctor went with Rose in their adventures. It's quite clear The Doctor is rebounding, though an advanced being such as himself would never admit such a thing.
There is a generous amount of a satire in this episode that will be readily apparent to anyone who has ever had to commute. Martha is kidnapped so that her kidnappers can use what is essentially a "fast" lane, only to find out that the commute everyone thinks they are making on the freeways beneath the city takes years, not hours. The sight of flying cars stacked on top of one another in endless traffic lanes in the sunless underground is a sign that Doctor Who is keeping up its tradition of marrying impressive visual effects with brain tickling ideas.
Martha is separated from the Doctor for a time so we get to see her in action on her own in what is her first big excursion to another world. She acquits herself nicely, as The Doctor's companions usually do. He tends to recruit well. It would be interesting to see The Doctor take on a companion completely unsuited to the task (Mickey sort of fits that bill, and I'm sure there were others in the long history of the program that I'm forgetting at the moment…).
 
The show delivers a whammy when The Doctor talks to The Face of Bo for the final time. Bo tells The Doctor a secret he had held since their previous meeting, which is that the Doctor "is not alone." This leads him to have to explain to Martha who he is, where he's from and what that all means. Tennant gives a wonderful performance in these final moments of the episode as The Doctor, for the first time in this new series, opens up to someone about what Galifrey was. It has been clear since The Doctor's return to television that the character has suffered so great a loss that he could not even talk about it to anyone. It's all been unspoken between him and those who knew. While Martha might be only a rebound girl, she's exactly what The Doctor needs.
 
Rating: 8.5/10

Series 3 Episode 2: Shakespeare Code

Brilliant.

Brilliant.

Brilliant.

Review Over... No, seriously now, the Shakespeare code is one of the best episodes of series 3, you can watch it over and over again and still be suprised everytime, In an episode that serves as the Doctor's inaugural journey with Martha Jones, it's hard not to get a sense of deja vu. At first, this seems so much like the episode "The Unquiet Dead," the episode from first season where The Doctor took Rose to 19th century London. That episode featured an adventure with Charles Dickens, and also had a supernatural feel to the story. While this at first seems derivative, it begins to come clear that the similarity is deliberate. What we're watching is The Doctor doing exactly what he said he wasn't doing: replace Rose. This is a man on the rebound if ever there was one.
The episode itself is somewhat run-of-the-mill, with a fairly straightforward story. However, Dean Lennox Kelly gives a great performance as William Shakespeare, whom he plays as a womanizing arrogant 16th century equivalent of a rock star. He lends a number of great moments to the show, including one where The Doctor promises, "We can all stand around later for a good flirt," which prompts Shakespeare to shoot The Doctor a lusty glance and say, "Is that a promise Doctor?" The Doctor says, "Oh, 57 academics just punched the air." It's one of the biggest laughs of the episode, and a reminder that only this show can get away with a moment like this.
This take on Shakespeare is interesting because it presents him as brilliant beyond just his writing. The Doctor's "psychic paper" doesn't work on Shakespeare, because he's simply too insightful. This episode also presents the interesting idea that Shakespeare's words work in a way that has much the same power as the Carrionites in this episode.

Series 3 Episode 1: Smith and Jones

We start, for the first time in the new incarnation of Doctor Who, without the zoom in on the planet Earth first used in “Rose.” Euro-urban cliché hip-hop fades up as Martha talks to her many messed relatives on her cellphone. (Clearly we need the music to telegraph the fact that she is black to us. Oh no, whatever shall we do. Personally, since I regard Mickey as a companion, she isn’t the first black companion, which is the buzz word in the press.) Freema is great as Martha and the first episodes set-up has a great bookend piece of eccentricity right up front when the Doctor appears in front of her and for no reason takes off his tie and says, “Like So …” and walks off again. For Martha, this is the way things are going to be for a while.
She is a medical student and, while doing her rounds, comes across the Doctor again. He says he doesn’t remember her and their encounter. He then does a great piece of non-linear rambling about Ben Franklin and holding the kite, getting electrocuted, etc. Moments later (literally in terms of modern Doctor Who story telling) the entire hospital is enveloped in a very localized rainstorm … and the rain appears to be going up. Suddenly, the hospital is on the moon, they are invaded by rhino-like Jadoon (a race of galactic police) and fight a plasmavore in the disguise of an old lady.

My Rant - To be totally fair, this is the biggest hurdle the new series has had to face so far. The entire cast has now been replaced, and more importantly, Rose has been replaced. When the new series debuted with Eccleston’s damaged Doctor and Rose as more or less the main character, there was concern in some circles, not just about Davies’ “agenda,” but that the show was already tied to a short life-line. The soapy elements of the series (The LOVE STORY!!! Rose’s family, etc.) also seemed overdone. At the end of that series, we saw the regeneration of Eccleston into Tennant and a return to a somewhat more traditional Doctor. The love story remained and it took an awful lot of twisting and turning to come up with a season 2 closer “Doomsday” that could satisfy the “newer” fan expectation as well as return the show to its roots. It did. Last Christmas’ “The Runaway Bride” annoyed a lot of people, not least of all for Catherine Tate’s rather obnoxious character, but it did at least go straight for the traditional DW story telling without too much emotional baggage in the way.
Series Three does seem to want to throw us back into a Captain Kirk type pattern of serial monogamy, but in this case it seems that Martha likes the Doctor and he’s … well, 900 years old and not interested. This is, of course, as it should be. I’ve never followed that “modern” storytelling demands a love story (I mean, really, that stuff killed the Marx Bros. career 70 years ago. Modern???) It doesn’t mean that it isn’t good in other shows, but not in this one. This one is about something grander, bigger than life … and, frankly, intellectual. The Doctor in love is just not interesting anymore than Frankenstein doing a dance routine … in short; it is camp, spoof, silly, etc.

With so much to do in 44 minutes, Smith and Jones is quite a good story. Good monsters (love the old lady with the straw) and a good new character. We are clearly back into some old territory for the long-term fans, while all the new ones should be able to come along for the ride. Martha’s crush on the Doctor seems more at a teasing stage and her family seem to be cut and pasted in over Rose’s, but we still have a long way to go before the big Saxon ending …

Rating: 10/10

Series 2 Special: The Runaway Bride

Having just seen the Christmas Special, The Runaway Bride, I've now watched all of David Tennant's first series as Doctor Who. To begin with this last show, I actually found myself quite enjoying the episode; and I was expecting to despise it- comedienne Catherine Tate has a prominent guest role as the bride. Instead I got a tongue-in-cheek romp that was fairly pleasant to watch. For once the somewhat light-hearted approach to the current run didn't feel out of place. The story clips along at a fair pace and the interaction between Tate and Tennant was well done- his propensity to talk at a thousand miles an hour to explain things was met on more than one occasion by a slap to the face. The pair seemed to grate a little and it was fun to watch. And it was such a relief not to have the show bogged down with the soap opera that was Rose and her family. Though Piper's character was a decent enough companion, the tendency of the writers to focus on her and her mother, etc was an enormous mistake. Thank goodness she- and the rest- are gone forever.

There was some good action, including the Tardis bumping along the motorway in a high speed car chase, and the Big Bad was quite well done. Not perfect- the design was great but it was a shame the FX budget didn't extend to having her move around a little; and she could have done with a little less over-acting. I could also have done without another appearance by the now ubiquitous G36; not only did the maker's have it in the hands of the British Army in Doomsday and in the year 200,000 (the end episode of Eccleston's run) but it's also used here by the Santa-bots. Come on, can't you mock up some ray guns?
Another complaint is that one aspect of the plot contradicts a previous Doctor Who story- what about the Stahlman's gas at the core? Won't the world be destroyed as it was before in Inferno? It might seem like a minor quibble but it goes against the already established canon and seems to indicate an ignorance on the part of the writers of what has gone before. Shouldn't the Doctor have had to contend with Primords and oozing green slime? Besides which, how are aliens supposed to survive there for so long?
I've also had enough of the "last Time Lord left" stuff- in this episode there's another alien who is "the last of their kind"- well, apart from a few thousand others in some kind of hibernation. We heard that before with the Daleks and there seem to be millions of them left running around the universe; and the next series previews show that more are on the way. Quite what possessed the series creator to make the Doctor the last of his kind is beyond me- seems to be a dreadful and quite pointless idea. It adds nothing to the character (exile him instead?) and closes down any plot line involving his homeworld or other Time Lords.

Rating: 8/10

Series 2 Episode 12/13: The army of ghosts/ doomsday

In an episode featuring an epic confrontation between humans, Daleks, and Cybermen, and a crossover between parallel universes, you'd think that there wouldn't be much room for character drive drama. Doctor Who writer extraordinaire, Russel T. Davies, finds a way to make this action packed episode one of the most emotionally moving and poignant stories about loss and refusing to let go. The massive excitement surrounding Doctor and Rose's last adventure is somehow surpassed by the beautifully acted and extremely well written final chapter of the duo's adventures.
Rose doesn't actually die, but gets transplanted to the parallel universe where she's to stay with Mickey, Jackie and the alternate universe version of her father. Although she gets to rejoin her family and friends, she loses the Doctor forever. The fissure between the two parallel universes is closed thanks to the efforts of the time traveling duo (and conveniently solves the matter of the invading Dalek and Cybermen forces by sucking them into the void), but in the process, Rose gets rescued by her alternate universe father and is transported to that version of Earth just as the fissures are closed for good. With no way to travel back and her body missing on our version of Earth, Rose Tyler is declared to be dead in our Earth.
This leads to the extremely moving final scene where the Doctor finds a way to communicate with Rose by burning up a star and projecting himself on a beach somewhere in Norway. Rose manages to track him down and find him, they have only a few minutes to speak, and before the Doctor can confess to a crying Rose that he loves her, the communications link is broken. It's extremely genuine and heartfelt and you really couldn't ask for a better way to say goodbye. Of course, life must go on, and as a tearful Doctor walks about the Tardis, a confused and angry woman in full wedding attire appears onboard to end the episode. This new storyline will continue in the forthcoming Christmas Special that will premiere on the BBC soon after you read this.

For fans of the series, this is an extremely satisfying finale, and for those who have yet to witness this British cult phenomenon, if you're going to watch just one Doctor Who episode, "Doomsday" provides more entertainment than you would get in a full season of lesser shows. This is sci-fi television at its finest.
 
Rating: 10/10

Series 2 Episode 10: Fear Her

This episode was written by Matthew Graham, who is also scheduled to write an episode for series six of Doctor who, it is a very intresting episode, featuring a young girl named Chloe, living in quiet neighborhood in London likes to sit in her room and draw. Unfortunately, whatever she draws ends up disappearing.
It's around the time of the 2012 Olympics, which are being held in London. The Doctor and Rose arrive, wanting to see the opening ceremonies. When they arrive at Chloe's neighborhood, they notice several signs put up by concerned parents looking for their missing children. Several children have disappeared from the neighborhood and as usual, it's up to Doctor and Rose to figure out what's going on and hopefully put a stop to it.
After some of the more entertaining recent episodes, this episode seemed a little flat and formulaic. Both Tennant and Billie Piper seemed less enthusiastic and the script wasn't all that great either. The mystery of the disappearing children wasn't all that enticing either. We know from the start that the girl is responsible, and one would automatically assume that it's some unknown alien being that's the root cause of it.
The child actor who portrayed the possessed Chloe was sufficiently capable and creepy when required, but once again, everything about this episode felt slightly underwhelming. To add to the problems, there were some particularly annoying self-aggrandizing moments that made no sense and served only to make the episode feel unnecessarily campy. For instance, the moment where the girl made the entire stadium audience disappear prior to the opening ceremonies felt a little ridiculous, but the worst moment of the episode had to be near the end where the Doctor decides that it's up to him to carry the Olympic torch to light the Olympic flame. By doing this, it helps free the alien who's possessed Chloe and enables it to rejoin its family.


Lacking originality and exhibiting a serious deficiency of humor or any real memorable moments, it's hard to recommend this episode to anyone but the most dedicated Doctor Who fans. If you're running out of room on your DVR, "Fear Her" is episode you can easily skip.


Rating: 5/10

Series 2 Episode 9: Love and Monsters

This is the kind of episode that people will either love or hate. The Doctor and Rose are hardly present in this episode. Instead it focuses on a ragtag group of Doctor fanatics that call themselves LINDA (London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency). The episode is presented as a video blog of sorts, with several flashback sequences. The story is told from the point of view of the blogger, a likeable lonely character named Elton Pope.
Granted, it's very different from your typical episode. The humor is even more tongue in cheek than usual, and the ridiculous villain will either turn viewers away or have them on the floor laughing.
That's probably why fans would be so divided on this episode. Those that can look past the absurdity and embrace the fantastic dialogue will thoroughly enjoy this episode from start to finish. If you're looking for another Doctor and Rose adventure, this episode will most likely disappoint.
One of the remarkable features in this episode is the fantastic editing work that seamlessly moves between the video blog narration to oddly relevant video bites, to the extended flashback sequences. The transitions are great and add to the comedic timing of the show.
The real star of this episode is the brilliantly written dialogue. With the evolution of LINDA's initial Doctor searching goals to a simple weekly social gathering among friends, to the arrival of the mysterious Victor Kennedy, every scene and montage is tightly edited to comedic perfection.
Victor's comments about his alleged "eczema" and his desire not to be touched is only surpassed by his hilarious transition to the grotesque "Absorbaloff" creature that absorbs humans into his body… somehow leaving their heads intact.

In the end, this episode will definitely divide fans. There will be those who won't like it at all, and there are others who will rank this episode amongst the best of the season because of its comedic value. One of the best ways to really measure the success of an episode is how much you want to go back and watch it again. "Love & Monsters" has so many great lines and funny moments that it's a very easy episode to watch several times, which is why we choose to love it.  It was excellent except for the last ten minutes.


Rating: 9/10

Series 2 Episode 7/8: The impossible Planet/ The Satan Pit

Action sequences featuring masses of mindless zombies and their variants seem to a Doctor Who series stable. In this episode, a continuation of the previous "The Impossible Planet", the fairly innocuous tentacle-lipped slave race known as the Ood are possessed by a satanic force, and are driven to destroy their human masters. In order to stop it from happening, Rose steps up and takes command of the likeable space station crew.

The only way to stop the Ood from overrunning the humans is to "flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, and disrupt their telepathy." Meaningless technobabble aside, what this entails from a story standpoint is that the crew has to make their way to Ood Habitation via a network of cramped crawlspace tunnels that have no atmosphere. It's up to the Captain, who's stuck on the bridge, to provide moving packets of oxygen in the tunnel network as the crew makes their way. Sacrifices are made, the security officer dies, but they ultimately prevail and manage to bring down the Ood thanks to their camaraderie and teamwork.
Of course, it isn't as simple as that. There's the matter of the possessed archaeologist who seems to be the new host for the satanic creature that inhabits the planet. The Devil's mind wants to escape, and wants to use the crew to help him.

Meanwhile the Doctor and Ida disobey the Captain's orders and pursue the devilish creature that supposedly lives down the large pit that opened up at the end of the previous episode. Once down there, the Doctor is confronted by the satanic monstrosity, which is brought to life with an impressive display of CGI graphic artistry.
 
Intentionally ambiguous about the creature's origins, the TARDIS crew and the other humans part ways, but there was one ominous prediction that is emphasized at the end of the episode. During the devil's preliminary monologue earlier in the episode, he had the following to say about Rose: "The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon". Now we know that Billie Piper is leaving the show at the end of the year, so it's going to be interesting to see how she ends up departing. The Doctor comforts Rose by saying that the creature was lying, but there was a slight air of uncertainty in his voice. In any event, with only a few episodes left to go, we'll know Rose's fate for sure by the end of this season.
 
Rating: 9/10

Series 2 Episode 6: The idiots lantern

A banished alien creature arrives on Earth and needs human brains to feed on in order to take physical form. The creature calls herself "The Wire" and projects herself as an image of a woman in a television set. She enlists the help of a television maker from the 1950s to satiate her unusual hunger. Even by Doctor Who standards, this was a very strange episode.

This episode focuses on the lives of the Connolly family where an over-bearing father who cares only about his image, and his submissive wife and son who are both afraid to speak the truth about what is really going on. It turns out that Mrs. Connolly's mother lost her face while watching television one night, and ever since then, she was locked away in a room upstairs. While the effect used to create the blank faces looked impressive, it raises many questions about how some of these faceless people were able to survive for months. How do they eat or breathe? While Doctor Who has never been about asking complex scientific questions, there are some cases where common sense should prevail.

The police would come and take the faceless people away and lock them up in cages. This was in an attempt to "clean up" London before Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953. This was the most watched television spectacle of its time and a perfect opportunity for The Wire to gather enough faces to bring about her liberation from her electronic alien prison. Obviously, the Doctor figures out a way to stop this from happening, and using the help of Mr. Connolly's son, Tommy, he is able to modify The Wire's transmitter into a receiver and reverse the signal and trap her in a videocassette. It's a very simplistic solution to an extremely bizarre problem.

Overall, this was an extremely bizarre episode that requires the audience to perform many leaps of logical faith, but unlike previous scientifically challenged episodes, the payoff here isn't worth the lack of logic. The story was marginally interesting, and the only real highlight was when Rose and the Doctor arrive at the Connolly's home completely overstep Eddie Connolly's authority in his own house. Rose points out an interesting fact that the Union Jack is only known as such when flown at sea. The UK flag is officially known as the Union Flag on mainland. The Doctor had enough of Eddie's bullying and gets into a heated discussion about letting the duo help. Interesting anecdotes aside, this episode was far from being one of the Doctor's better voyages.
 
Rating: 7/10

Series 2 Episode 4/5: Rise of the Cybermen/ Age of steel

In the follow-up to last week's return of the Cybermen, the Doctor and friends combat the bio-mechanical agents created by John Lumic's diabolical mind in an action-packed adventure. Lumic's goal is to convert the entire population of London into Cybermen, in an effort to provide immortality to all humans. By activating a set of instructions sent through the EarPods, Lumic is able to take control of everyone in the city and have them walk like drones to the conversion centers for "upgrading".
One of the highlights in this episode is how Mickey gets the spotlight and the chance to save the day. As in previous episodes, The Doctor didn't include Mickey in his plans to stop the Cybermen. Unlike other times though, Mickey stands up for himself and offers to help. He tags along with Jake to take out the transmitter in Lumic's Zeppelin. The series writers have invested a considerable amount of time in developing all of the supporting characters, and Mickey's heroic moment and surprising decision to stay behind in the parallel universe was a culmination of careful exposition over many episodes.
Mickey's parallel universe counterpart, Ricky, perishes at the metallic hands of the Cybermen, so Mickey felt obliged to take his place. After so many episodes of undying loyalty to Rose, Mickey finally steps up and finds a purpose.
The Cybermen storyline, while exciting to watch, turned out to be a bit of a letdown. This was very much a "by the book" approach on how to do an action-heavy episode. Rose had the chance to share several close moments with her alternate universe father, when the duo attempted to rescue Jackie before she gets converted. Unfortunately, they are unable to save her, who at the end distances himself from her, proving the Doctor's point that this Jack is not her father.
When the Doctor and the upgraded Lumic finally meet they spend a little too long debating the merits of humanity and emotions. The problem with this longish scene is that we've seen this debate on human emotions a countless number of times in other sci-fi shows. There's nothing new here, but what is interesting is how the Doctor tells Mickey through the camera to find out the emotion override code that can be used to destroy the Cybermen. The Cybermen self destruct, somehow causing the control center to start blowing up to.

Overall this was certainly a great popcorn episode, with some very impressive action. Somehow, it doesn't quite deliver as well as it could have. There are far too many scenes that are too reminiscent of ideas we've seen in other sci-fi films and television shows. Definitely entertaining, and it's worth watching this episode just to see Mickey finally take center stage, but it felt a little too familiar.
 
Rating: 7/10

Series 2 Episode 3: School Reunion

Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elisabeth Sladen, appeared in the original Doctor Who series as the third and fourth Doctors' (Jon Petwee's and Tom Baker's) companion during the 1970s.

In a classy homage to her character, she reprises her role once more in this week's "School Reunion." Shape-shifting evil bat-like aliens take over a school and feed the students some greenish oil that has the effect of making human children hyper-intelligent. The Headmaster, played by Buffy veteran Anthony Head, leverages the combined intellect of the unnaturally intelligent children to solve the god-hood equation that will grant them unimaginable power. As usual, it's up to the Doctor and his associates to stop the aliens.

Come to think of it, the backdrop to the story is so off the wall and so obviously tongue-in-cheek that it somehow manages to come off as being wholly original, despite the obvious campy-horror influences.In any event, the story is secondary to the actual reunion between the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah is initially very upset about the fact that the Doctor never came back to see her after they had parted ways. His explanation: He could not bear to watch her grow old. If she wanted to, she could spend the rest of her life with him. However, he would be unable to spend the rest of his immortal life with her. Such, is the curse of being a Time Lord. Tennant continues to impress as the new Doctor, as he shows a fantastic range of emotions when he first meets Sarah Jane, and his interactions with her throughout the episode feel completely natural and believable.

Series 2 Episode 2: Tooth and Claw

I really liked this episode, the Doctor and Rose are now really familar with each other, queen victoria nearly gets eaten by a werewolf, and Torchwood is formed, that's quite an intresting story arc by the way, 'Torchwood'. Also, not forgetting the toatally awesome werewolf trying to take the crown. And the constant attempts from the Doctor and Rose to make Victoria say 'I am not amused' was very... amusing.

It was really intresting how everything came together at the end, how the diamond was the thing that saved the queen, and also the fact that sir Doctor James Mcrimmon of Tardis and Lady Rose was banished from England forever in the end.

Rating: 9/10

Series 2 Episode 1: New Earth

New Earth was quite a good idea, it was really intresting seeing how things would work out after the destruction of planet earth, and also a good sequel to 'the end of the world' for we met the face of boe and cassandra once more. The cat nuns breeding the humans for experimentation was a brilliant idea, and cassandra taking over Roses body was also a great idea, It would have been more intresting if we learnt a bit more about the face of boe, but it was good none of the less. One thing that was not really explained on screen was how Cassandra found herself, but apart from that it was a really good episode.

Rating: 9/10

Series 1 Special: The Christmas Invasion

"The Christmas Invasion" would easily be guaranteed a sugnificant place in the Doctor Who history-books by virtue of being David Tennant's first episode-length appearance in the programme (following the short Children In Need sketch), and being only the second story which could be charitably deemed a Christmas special However, it does work quite well as an entertaining story in its own right, picking up and developing the storylines of the earlier series.



Christmas specials are, normally, the low point of a television series, generally being an excuse for substandard writing, either involving trite and saccharine messages about the spirit of Christmas, or pantomimesque romps:  "The Christmas Invasion", however, is nothing like "The Feast of Steven", and also proves a nice antidote to Christmas saccharinity, skewering the holiday-special cliche of snow miraculously falling at Christmas (cf. Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Amends") by having the "snow" in question turn out to be ash from the destroyed Sycorax spaceship. The production is once again flawless, with Clearwell Caves making a welcome appearance (although the one major sticking-point from our perspective is that the credits sequence has reverted to the 1980s trend of crediting the lead character as "The Doctor" rather than the more traditional "Doctor Who").

Rating: 7/10

Episode List

This is the overall episode list for series 1.

"Rose" Russell T Davies
Rose Tyler is just an ordinary shop worker living an ordinary life in 21st century Britain. But that life is turned upside down when a strange man calling himself The Doctor drags her into an alien invasion attempt!

"The End of the World" Russell T Davies

The Doctor takes Rose on her first trip through time to the year five billion, where they join a group of alien delegates preparing to watch the Earth being consumed by the sun. But there's a traitor on board who's plotting to kill them all.

"The Unquiet Dead"  Mark Gatiss

The Doctor has great expectations for his latest adventure when he and Rose join forces with Charles Dickens to investigate a mysterious plague of zombies.

"Aliens of London" Russell T Davies
The Doctor returns Rose to her own time - well, sort of - but her family reunion is ruined when a spaceship crashes in the middle of London. What is the origin of the spaceship, and where has the Prime Minister gone in this time of crisis?

"World War Three" Russell T Davies
The fiendish Slitheen have been unmasked as the ones who crashed the spaceship into London as part of a ruse to trigger World War Three. But how can The Doctor save the planet when he's trapped inside a locked room?

"Dalek" Robert Shearman

The Doctor becomes the main exhibit at a billionaire's alien museum in Utah. But there's something else in there with them - the last member of the most vicious, evil species in the galaxy, and if The Doctor can't stop it, the whole world may be destroyed!

"The Long Game" Russell T Davies 

The Doctor and Rose arrive in the year 200,000 to see The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. But something has gone wrong - someone is holding back the development of mankind. Who could have done this? And why?

"Father's Day" Paul Cornell

The Doctor takes Rose back to the day her father died, but when she tries to save him she creates a paradox that damages time and space. As the universe starts to come apart, the monstrous Reapers - creatures that feed on time distortions - begin to consume the Earth. And this time The Doctor will not be able to save the day!

"The Empty Child" Steven Moffat

The emergency signal from an out-of-control timeship lands the Doctor and Rose in the middle of London in World War II. As Rose grows close to a mysterious American named Jack, The Doctor pursues a ghostly, deformed child through the fog.

"The Doctor Dances" Steven Moffat
Albion Hospital is overrun with the Empty Child's zombified victims. Worse, The Doctor, Rose and Jack are trapped in there with them. Their only chance of stopping the Child lies in a crater outside the hospital - but they have only minutes before German bombs destroy it!

"Boom Town" Russell T Davies

Stopping off in present-day Cardiff to recharge the TARDIS, The Doctor, Rose and Jack encounter an old foe in the midst of hatching a scheme that could tear apart the entire planet.

"Bad Wolf" Russell T Davies
Jack, The Doctor and Rose have been kidnapped and forced to play terrible and deadly games. But what happens to the bodies of the murdered contestants? And what sinister plot do the games hide?

"The Parting of the Ways"  Russell T Davies

The Dalek fleet is poised to destroy the Earth and only The Doctor, Rose, and Jack can stop them.

Series 1 Episode 12/13: Bad Wolf/ The Parting of ways

The Parting of ways and Bad Wolf was brilliantly written, from the very moments when the Doctor is stuck in Big Brother to the very end, it was really good how we got to see the last moments of the time war, and all those little people in the control room (who's names we never hear) give up their lives to buy the Doctor more time, Jack and Rose played an intresting part in this story, for they were both willing to help the Doctor no matter what the cost, and even when Rose is sent back to earth sacrafices everything to be able to get back to him.

If anything the ending made the Doctor seem more human then he ever has before, giving up everything to save the love of his life. This was also the first time we have saw the Doctor regenerate on screen for nine years, and the introduction to a new Doctor brought back the old magic of Doctor Who.

The new Doctor looked really intresting, he is definetly less mature then the last Doctor. So, goodbye 9th Doctor.

Series 1 Episode 11: Boom Town

Boom Town was the cheapest made episode in the history of Doctor Who, and also one of the best episodes in series 1. It featured Margaret, the slitheen from episodes 4 and 5. Margaret is building a power plant 'Blarg Drygg' in Cardiff, in attempt to flee from planet earth, she becomes the mayor of Cardiff and refuses to be photographed, but eventually her plan is foiled by the Doctor. I loved the bond between Mickey, Rose, Jack and the Doctor and the fact that Mickey is still 'Mickey the Idiot' despite helping the Doctor before, in the end Margaret is restored to her childhood, which was quite a freaky moment. Overall I loved this episode, one of Russell T Davies finest ideas.

Rating: 9/10

Series 1 Episode 9/10: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

This was the first episode written by the amazingly talented Steven Moffat, it is set in World War II and the Doctor and Rose are running from a child missing for his mummy. This episode was purely terrifing and truely brilliant, it was the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness, a previous time agent from the 52nd Century who joins the Doctor and Rose in many other adventures, I loved the scene where the Doctor walks on stage in a bar, and asks the crowd if they have found anything that has fell from the sky lately, he then sees the air raid poster. Priceless.

One of my favorite moments of this episode was when Rose was hanging on a barage balloon with a big union flag on her chest... in the middle of a german bombing! This episode was a work of pure genious, and set our standards high for future Doctor Who episodes.

Rating: 10/10

Series 1 Episode 8: Father's Day

Fathers Day was a very diffrent episode, it was the first appearence of Peter Alan Tyler, Rose's dead father. This is one of the best episodes of series one, this episode really made the Doctor show how much he cared for Rose. It was very well written, the Doctor knows how to stop the reapers and restore everyone back to normal, but he decides to ignore it and look for another option, although he is sure their isn't one. In the end Peter Alan Tlyer was hit by the same car that killed him recently, but with key diffrences... he was not alone. This was by far the best episode of the series.

Rating: 10/10

Series 1 Episode 7: The Long Game

Considering Adam was a crew member, thid episode was the perfect introduction to satellite five, the mighty Jagrafess living above on floor 500, therefore venting all the heat down below, the editor 'Jack Frost; was quite a funny character, and I love it that when he was in danger he tried to run away. Adam also got a chip installed into his head, and nearly revealed all of the Doctors secrets. Thankfully Adam was kicked out of the TARDIS, and we will never see him again.
rating 6/10

Series 1 Episode 6: Dalek

The return of the Daleks! This was the episode that reminded everyone that Daleks are superior, one Dalek managed to take down an entire armed base in five minutes, consume the internet, trick the doctor companion and fly up the stairs. This was also the episode where the Time war was revealed, and Henry Van Statton became a hobo on some street beginning with an S. I was very dissaponted with the ending, the Dalek wanted to see the sun and Adam joined the crew... annoying Adam. But overall a decent episode.
Rating: 8/10

Series 1 Episode 4/5: Aliens in London/ World War Three

This was a rather embarassing episode if anything, from the constant 'fart' jokes to the insults on the obese *snigger* ... I mean... how inappropriare. It started off quite well, with the 'twelve months late' buisness and such, and Jackies reaction was truely pticeless. This was also the intoduction of Harriet Jones: MP for flydell north, and one of my favorite series one character. The new monsters the 'slitheen' from the planet Raxacoricofallapatoris were also very... intresting. and the 'experimental pig' was very amusing.

Rating 6/10

Series 1 Episode 3: The Unquiet Dead

The unquiet dead is the third episode of the first series, its written by Mark Gatiss, it featured an enemy named 'the Gelth' it started off really great, the dead coming to life and attacking the living, and not forgetting Charles Dickens... surrounded by ghosts... at christmas! Dickens was portrayed by Simon Callow, who played the part rather convinvingly. This also acted as Christopher Ecclestons 'christmas special' since his Doctor only lasted for one series. The Gelth tricked the Doctor into bringing them into this world, which showed the resembelnce he had with the fourth Doctor, who would joke in the face of danger beside his companion, but be serious by himself.

Rating 9/10

Series 1 Episode 2: The End of the World

The end of the world was the second episode of the first series of Doctor Who, it was also written by Russell T Davies, this episode was Rose's first proper trip in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose land on a space station, where the great and the good are staying to watch the earth explode. The visitors of the end of the earth include:

The Face of Boe
Casandra dot delta seventeen
The Moxx of Bahoon

Although this episode was quite good, it had the potential to be much better. For example the episode would be much better if it was more of a 'whodunnit' for example, it would have been great if the audience was led to suspect diffrent people at diffrent times, the moxx of bahoon would have been a great suspect. Cassandra was a bit of a bland character, it seemed that it was obvious that she was the villian from the very start. Rose's reactions to the aliens were perfect, she walked away eventually and started talking to a plant... then she was nearly burnt by the sun.

Overall this episode was quite well written and was matched by very good acting.

Rating: 7/10

Series 1 Episode 1: Rose

An explosive start to the extremley missed sci-fi known as Doctor Who, the much loved show that no genre set in stone. But this was an all new beginning, what ever was shown in this episode depeneded on wether or not Doctor Who would start where it left off after a sixteen year gap. With the introduction of the 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and the lovely new companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) Russell T Davies perfectly managed to bring Doctor Who into the 21st Century, this episode included everything good from the fclassic series, with a mix of pure genious, for example the painful death of Clive in front of his family and the expected death of Rose's boyfriend, Mickey Smith, that was one part I didn't like about this episode, the fact that Rose didn't realise her boyfriend was made of plastic... throughout their dinner date it was quite obvious. Apart from that and the 'Anti Plastic'... serious what really is anti plastic? Anyway... it was a really good episode and a brilliant introduction to the much loved Doctor, Christopher Eccleston and the 'fantastic' companipn Rose Tyler.

Rating: 9/10