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