4.10 – “Midnight”

STORY
Donna and The Doctor pay a visit to the resort planet Midnight, where Donna decides to work on her tan whilst The Doctor accompanies a group of tourists on a shuttle bus visit to the planet’s Sapphire Waterfalls. But before the group can reach them, their shuttle is infiltrated by an unknown presence and The Doctor soon finds himself short on allies.

REVIEW
One of the best scripts ever delivered by Russell T Davies, the companion-lite episode ”Midnight” is an exploration of paranoia and claustrophobia and stands as one of the best stories in series 4. It’s a simple enough premise but one that has not been explored that often in the show’s history; how well can The Doctor survive in a crisis amongst a group of strangers? Usually he will have a companion with him on any given adventure who will side with him and help keep The Doctor’s voice heard but in a crisis situation where he is surrounded by strangers who don’t know if they can trust him, can The Doctor still hold his own?

With Donna choosing to stay behind, The Doctor heads out onto the planet Midnight in a shuttle bus with a group of tourists consisting of a scientist (played by David Troughton, son of the Second Doctor) and his teenaged assistant, a couple and their son and a lone woman whose exact profession and reason for being there are never made clear. Her name is Sky Silvestry (played with utter menace by Lesley Sharp) and she is the first to become possessed by an unknown force that kills the shuttles pilots and then begins to taunt the occupants of the craft. Whilst his companions remain distressed and suspicious of Sky and her predilection for repeating everything they say, The Doctor is intrigued and determined to solve the mystery.

Unfortunately it’s a mystery that does not wish to be solved. Whatever this life form is, it’s intentions are never revealed although its methods eventually become clear. It doesn’t simply mimic the people it encounters, it steals their voices, at first repeating the things they say but then repeating them as they are saying them until finally it is speaking before the person themself. At first, Sky’s behaviour doesn’t seem that threatening – it’s just a crazy lady repeating what people say (if you’ve ever worked in a bar you’ll have come across this behaviour plenty of times). But once she is speaking in time with The Doctor then it becomes very unsettling and suddenly the occupants of the shuttle seem to be in very real danger. They can’t go outside because the radiation would vaporise them, they can’t move the shuttle and they can’t seem to shake Sky out of her possession.

This is when the discussion turns to throwing Sky out onto the radiation soaked planet. Intervening as he usually does, The Doctor becomes the new target of their suspicions and in no time at all the passengers are turning on him, suggesting that he is somehow in league with Sky. Amongst all the commotion and arguing, The Doctor suddenly notices that Sky is now saying his words before he has even said them and shortly after this he becomes incapacitated, leading the passengers to believe he is the one now possessed. A seemingly recovered Sky fuels their fears and encourages them to throw him out instead. Try as he might, The Doctor has lost control of the situation and is now unable to move. The intentions of the life form are still not clear but it’s methods – breeding mistrust and sowing doubt – become apparent and at the last moment Sky is pulled out into the radiation by the skips hostess, whose name we never learn. The Doctor regains control and the ship is eventually rescued, but the entire episode has left a profound mark on The Doctor and his faith in human beings.

The acting throughout from all cast members is stellar. The sense of fear and claustrophobia is expertly woven by Davies’ script and the direction of Alice Troughton (no relation). The loss of control experienced by The Doctor is palpable as we, the audience, want to condemn the passengers for not trusting him and his judgement – but then they have no idea who he is or what is going on and as The Doctor himself seems unable to explain their predicament, his normal role as the hero becomes untenable for them. The way the passengers allow their distress to quickly lead them to irrational and hateful behaviour is the one factor that probably has the biggest impact here on The Doctor. He has always championed human beings and their nature but in a situation like this he sees the uglier side of them and Tennant delivers a wonderful performance in his reaction to their behaviour, completed by a mournful resolution with Donna.

RATING
“Midnight” promises us suspense, mystery and a claustrophobic tension and delivers on all fronts. The fact that the life form’s intentions are never made completely apparent is a nice change for the show. The acting is superb from the supporting cast and Tennant is at his best, wrestling with suspicions and accusations whilst desperately trying to save the lives of those who mistrust him. For all his faults, Davies proves here that he can write thrillers just as well as anyone else and ”Midnight” is absolutely a highlight of his tenure, proudly earning an epic 10/10.

Written and edited by Richey Hackett

4.11 – “Turn Left”

STORY
Visiting the world of Shan Shen, Donna meets a fortune teller who is able to manipulate her into changing one single moment from her past so that Donna never meets The Doctor. As a result she never stops The Doctor from dying during his encounter with the Racnoss and the consequences for the Earth prove to be catastrophic.

REVIEW
Doctor-lite episodes don’t always turn out to be such a good idea in practice (lest we forget “Love & Monsters”), but “Turn Left” proves to be a notable exception and one of the highlights of series 4. It poses the simple question of what the world would be like without The Doctor to protect it and then takes us on a journey through an alternate timeline of the events we’ve seen since “The Runaway Bride” and how The Doctor’s absence results in the deaths of millions. As such, it’s easy to read “Turn Left” as vindication for everything The Doctor does; people may die when he’s around, but a hell of a lot more would die if he wasn’t! For me, though, that’s missing the more interesting idea that is inherent in the story; it’s not so much about “how important is The Doctor?” as it’s about “how important is Donna in The Doctor’s life?”

The Doctor and Donna are busy taking in the colour and culture of the market on Shan Shen when a fortune teller approaches her - played by Chipo Chung who was also the lovely Chantho from “Utopia” – and offers to tell her about her future. Donna agrees but the fortune teller’s motives soon become clear. She’s actually more interested in Donna’s past, specifically her initial meeting with The Doctor. She manipulates Donna into changing a particular moment and the encounter never goes on to occur. With Donna never having met The Doctor, he now dies on Christmas Day fighting the Racnoss (presumably someone else materialized inside the TARDIS then?) and we go on to see Donna’s perspective of events from previous stories now The Doctor is no longer around to save the day.

Donna learns of the deaths of Sarah Jane and Martha Jones, both killed when a hospital stolen and taken to the moon (“Smith and Jones”). Later, the starship Titanic crashes into London, obliterating the city and killing millions (“Voyage Of The Damned”) which leads to Donna and her family moving up North where people are living several families to every one house. Millions die in America when the Adipose arrive (“Partners In Crime”) and the Torchwood team meet their deaths battling the Sontarans (“The Sontaran Stratagem”/”The Poison Sky”). The overcrowding in the habitable parts of Britain becomes so bad that internment camps are created to house foreign citizens. All of these terrible, dark events come to pass simply because Donna never stepped in to prevent The Doctor from going to far and losing his life in his confrontation with the Racnoss. It does highlight both the importance of someone like The Doctor to the Earth, having him around when these threats occur, it also shows the uglier side of human nature with the segregation of foreigners and the insinuation of death camps but the sheer importance of Donna just screams out of the episode. Anyone (myself included) who had doubted her presence in the series way back in “Partners In Crime” could no longer be left with any doubt that Donna is truly one of the most important companions there has ever been. Without her, this grim alternate timeline would surely have come to pass.

After a series of short meetings over the course of the episode, Donna finally meets Rose for an extended period of time. She’s been hopping between realities as the walls of each universe are starting to collapse. Rose’s presence here is little more than a plot device to get Donna back to the timeline she belongs in and whilst it’s always nice to see Billie Piper return to the role, it doesn’t really add anything significant in character terms. Donna is our focus now, she’s the one whose character we are watching mature and become a central focal point. Rose by comparison is almost an afterthought; certainly there is no character development for her, mainly because we already know the essential elements of Rose. More than that, Pipers performance is quite low-key and doesn’t demand too much from the audience. Catherine Tate, on the other hand, is an absolute powerhouse here, lending a depth and maturity to Donna that has been coming for some time but which now blossoms spectacularly in perhaps her best performance of the series. It’s quite possible that the gravity of Donna’s situation and her importance in the series as a whole is all there in the writing, but without Tate’s humanising of the character it perhaps wouldn’t have had the same impact.

Throughout series 4 we’d had the constant refrain “There’s something on your back!” leveled at Donna, a creepy element that kept most of us guessing and added an air of suspense to the character’s ultimate fate. Finally we get the pay-off to that when Rose reveals to Donna that there is indeed a creature on her back, some kind of huge invisible beetle that feeds off a person’s timeline by making alterations to it. The manipulation of Donna’s timeline feels sinister and it takes Rose’s encouragement and talk of The Doctor to convince Donna to go back in time and stop herself from turning right when she should have turned left – literally, it’s the difference between driving her car in one direction or the other. She does so and the timelines are restored, leading into the episodes cliffhanger where Donna imparts a message from Rose to The Doctor that sends them running off into the next adventure.

RATING
Even without the elements that serve as a prelude for the series finale, “Turn Left” would still stand out not only as a showcase for Catherine Tate’s acting chops but also as a fascinating examination of how the smallest moments can have the largest impact in our lives. It also cements Donna’s importance as a companion as we’re shown what could have been had she not been in The Doctor’s life at the right time. Dramatic, unsettling and very re-watchable, “Turn Left” warrants a solid 8/10.

Written and edited by Richey Hackett

4.12 – “The Stolen Earth”

STORY
Arriving to investigate Rose’s warning, The Doctor and Donna witness the Earth disappear before their eyes. Rushing to inform The Shadow Proclamation, they discover the problem isn’t unique to Earth and, in the darkness, an old enemy waits for The Doctor to put the pieces together.

REVIEW
With signs and portents galore leading us into this two-part series finale you might have expected something a bit more sinister, especially after the very unsettling “Turn Left”. Instead, part one treats us to a veritable celebration of all things Doctor Who under the command of Russell T Davies. Knowing that he would not be returning for series 5 to writer and run the show, Davies takes the opportunity to call back all the companions from his tenure and give them one last hurrah in service of The Doctor (something Davies then examines closer in past two). Some will find this excessive and accuse the episode of being bloated, others will simply enjoy seeing all the familiar faces again and the spirit of unity that exists between them all. Whatever your position, the one thing that should certainly draw everyone to this episode and it’s succesor is Julian Bleach as one of The Doctor’s oldest enemies – Davros.

The Doctor and Donna set off to visit The Shadow Proclamation – who are basically the space police – to report the disappearance of Earth and ask for help. But while they are busy trying to figure out what’s going on the assorted companions from The Doctor’s recent past – Rose, Mickey, Captain Jack and the Torchwood team, Martha and Harriet Jones – are all busy defending the Earth from a Dalek invasion and trying to solve their own puzzle of just what the Daleks are intending to do with them and the 26 other planets that have appeared in the sky. The whole ensemble cast is on great form, everyone is given their moment to shine here and their own unique purpose in helping to combat the Dalek threat. Once Harriet Jones is able to communicate with them all they truly do come together to present a united front in trying to get hold of The Doctor and call him to them.

This actually represents a nice bit of characterisation for the companions; although The Doctor figured out where the planets must be, he seemingly gives up when he and Donna arrive at The Medusa Cascade only to find nothing there. It’s thanks to his companions, who have all grown self-sufficient enough to be able to form a functional unit in The Doctor’s absence, that the planets are finally located by the TARDIS – the whole Medusa Cascade has been put one second out of sync with the rest of the universe, creating a perfect little bubble of time in which to hide the Daleks and their plans. We get the perfunctory info dump when The Doctor and Donna make contact with the gang, but soon we’re onto the best moment of the episode when Davros is finally revealed.

It won’t be a popular opinion, I suspect, but I honestly believe Julian Bleach delivers the quintessential Davros performance. He has it all; the anger, the hatred, the intelligence, the sinister edge that shows you he’s serious and a genuine threat. In part two his scenes will become the only great moments of the episode. Here they are simply a highlight. There is an immediate antagonistic chemistry between Bleach and Tennant when their characters first speak for the first time in centuries and The Doctor’s genuine fear at Davros’ return is palpable.

But of course, for all the fanboys and fangirls, the reuniting of Rose and The Doctor is the moment they most want to see. They see each other from opposite ends of a street, begin to run towards each other with great big gurning smiles on their faces and for a moment you think you’re about to witness the ultimate cheesey moment in Doctor Who history. But it’s all a ruse as a Dalek creeps around a corner and takes out The Doctor with a glancing shot. As Rose and Jack rush him into the TARDIS he begins to regenerate. It’s a hell of a cliffhanger that, at the time, left viewers absolute stumped as to how things could possibly be resolved and, despite the conclusion not living up to it’s promise, it remains one of my favourite cliffhanger moments from New Who.

RATING
An episode that takes it’s time to properly set-up the story and re-introduce the familiar faces from The Doctor’s past, both in the form of his companions and his nemesis Davros. Although part 2 fails to maintain the quality, “The Stolen Earth” does and it remains a fun opportunity to revisit characters and moments from throughout Russell T Davies’ tenure as show runner. An entertaining and exhilarating 7/10.

Written and edited by Richey Hackett

4.13 – “Journey’s End”

STORY
The Doctor and his companions battle to stop the Dalek Empire from destroying the whole of reality with their latest weapon, the Reality Bomb.

REVIEW
“Journey’s End” stands as one of the most inconsistent episodes of Doctor Who ever made. On the one hand you have the heartbreaking conclusion of Donna’s story, the revealing exchanges between Davros and The Doctor and the examination of The Doctor’s true impact on people. Then on the other hand you have an incredibly thin plot that manages to wrap everything up far too easily. As a result, the overall quality of the episode is all over the place and whilst Davros’ analysis of The Doctor makes for fantastic viewing the episode as a whole fails to satisfy, becoming yet another example of a Doctor Who two-parter that starts strongly in part one but ends weakly in part 2.

At the end of “The Stolen Earth” The Doctor was dying following an attack by a Dalek and had begun to regenerate. The opening seconds of this episode drain the emotional punch from that cliffhanger in an instant simply to give the plot two Doctors to play with; the man himself and a duplicate created from The Doctor’s “handy spare hand” which he uses to siphon off the energy from his regeneration. On some level this does feel like a cheap gimmick, something a regeneration should never be. The TARDIS and her occupants are taken aboard the Dalek Crucible and with the TARDIS out of commission, they must face the wrath of the Daleks and their creator, Davros. Whilst Jack is seemingly killed and Rose and The Doctor are imprisoned, Donna is trapped in the TARDIS as it is sent into the heart of The Crucible to burn up so that The Doctor can’t use it to escape. Amidst the chaos inside the TARDIS, Donna touches the glowing spare hand, her DNA imprinting onto it and the duplicate Doctor is created – part human, part Time Lord. Although this plot element is essential in getting us to the conclusion of Donna’s story (with the transfer working both ways, making Donna part Time Lord) it also serves another purpose, one that left most fans apoplectic at RTD; the part human Doctor goes off to be with Rose at the end of the episode, to live out his one-life existence with her. It’s a stereotypical “happily ever after” moment that not only feels incredibly tacky but which also comes across as a kick in the teeth for the real Doctor. Rose is one of the only women he has ever truly loved in a romantic fashion and their love was always going to be a tragic one that never had a happy ending. Now a clone of The Doctor gets to go off and have the life which The Doctor himself can never have – does that not seem like a real knife in The Doctor’s heart? Is it just me? Bring Rose all the way back and then rub The Doctor’s face in the fact that he can’t have his dream of a normal life. Utterly mean.

The majority of “Journey’s End” is taken up with The Doctor’s companions trying to help stop the Daleks from using the Reality Bomb, an invention of Davros that will unmake from existence everything outside of The Medusa Cascade and leave the Daleks the only living species in creation. The Doctor himself and Rose are prisoners of Davros for much of the episode and it’s the scenes revolving around their verbal confrontation that make this episode worth watching. Davros berates The Doctor incessantly by referring to his arrogance and his history of bringing death and destruction wherever he goes. When the assembled companions all make failed attempts to stop the Daleks by threatening violence, Davros relishes the opportunity to show them all The Doctor’s “true self”; someone who turns people into weapons instead of using them himself. He has influenced the lives of all these people and they are prepared to sacrifice their lives (and the lives of others) to stop the Daleks. Davros reminds The Doctor of all those who have given their lives in the past to protect him or to help him achieve his goals, called The Doctor “the man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not…out of shame!” Julian Bleach plays the role of Davros perfectly, one moment speaking almost in a whisper that has venom and hatred gently curdling beneath every word and the next moment he is screaming with hysterical pride and joy at accomplishing what he thinks will be his ultimate defeat of The Doctor.

When the episode isn’t focused on these sorts of moments it drags and fails to keep the viewers attention. The final victory over the Daleks is achieved when, all hope seeming lost, Donna steps in to save the day. A blast of energy from Davros manages to activate the Time Lord knowledge now stored in her mind and she becomes “TheDoctorDonna” that was referred to earlier in the series by the Ood. And it’s between this moment and Donna’s departure from the TARDIS that we witness the all too easy wrapping up of events. The Daleks are destroyed, the Earth is towed home by the TARDIS, all the companions are restored to their time and place with the duplicate Doctor accompanying Rose to the alternate universe. And all of it just seems so easy, so convenient, so surface-level that it’s hard to understand how RTD could’ve given us such powerful moments of drama elsewhere in this episode and yet failed to maintain that quality throughout.

The story comes to an end with the emotional goodbye for Donna as her mind is overwhelmed by the Time Lord knowledge, forcing The Doctor to wipe her memory in order to save her life. It’s a true tragedy and one we might never have expected for a character like Donna. As someone who was totally against her inclusion in the series originally, I had gone from that position to one of genuine affection and respect for Donna as she became not only a thoughtful and charismatic member of The Doctor’s circle of friends but also remained just that, a friend, not another romantic interest for him. When The Doctor has to leave her with her mother and Wilf and tells them she must never remember him or anything that happened or her mind will burn, you can’t help but feel for The Doctor as he once more has to sacrifice something in order to do the right thing.

RATING
The plot is thin and everything is wrapped up far too easily and conveniently, but for all of it’s faults “Journey’s End” can also boast some of the most emotional moments in New Who and one of the most intriguing explorations of The Doctor’s character through the eyes of one of his greatest enemies. Not the brilliant conclusion to “The Stolen Earth” that it clearly had the potential to be, but still an entertaining 6/10.

Written and edited by Richey Hackett

9.4 – “The Mutants”

STORY
The Doctor is given a package from the Time Lords to deliver to Solos in the 30^th Century. There, the Marshal attempts to hold onto power while the natives demand their freedom. However, something is causing mutations in the native populations; just how far will the Marshal go to keep control of the planet?

RATING
Although I’ve been a Doctor Who fan for many years, there are some stories out there that even I haven’t seen or have only ever seen once (I do not count the missing episodes here, as I have at least listened to all of them). In the days before the Internet and DVD, getting Doctor Who on video was a costly pastime and not all of the surviving stories were commercially available. The simple fact is it took the BBC over 25 years to get all of them released. In short, “The Mutants” is a story I’ve never actually seen before now. This does have its advantages; I can look at this story with a completely objective mind, unlike some stories that I have watched over and over again.

The Doctor is given some donkey work to do by the Time Lords; he’s to deliver the orb they have sent him to the planet Solos. There the native population demands freedom from the Earth Empire, but the planet’s Marshal has other plans (like all well-rounded mad men). The orb that The Doctor is carrying is meant for Ky, one of the natives who opposes the Marshal and his occupation of Solos. With the help of a fugitive human scientist named Sondergaard, The Doctor discovers that the planet is about to enter its summer phase that lasts for 500 years and the mutants that have cropped up on the planet are in fact the native Solonians. Their mutation is a final evolutionary phase that will enable them to survive the change of seasons. The Marshal meanwhile has plans to terraform the planet so that humans can live there, regardless of the outcome for the native species. With the Earth Investigator sent to assess the situation, a final plan of wiping the Mutts out is stopped when Ky begins to mutate into the final stage of evolution, an angel like creature who will survive the changes between the seasons. He kills the Marshal and with help from Sondergaard and Cotton, prepares the rest of the population of Solos for their mutation. The Doctor departs with Jo, their job for the Time Lords now complete.

“The Mutants” is a fairly complex story; with its ideas of dictatorial overlords, racism and evolution, there’s a lot to take in. The real trouble here, and one that only seemed to get worse in the Pertwee era, is the creeping in of stories whose moral message is about as subtle as a brick to the face. By 1972, most of the African nations had started to gain independence from their respective colonial masters, making this a particularly relevant topic for Doctor Who to tackle. When these kinds of real life issues are handled well in a fictional setting, it doesn’t detract from the story but adds a level of poignancy that the viewer can relate to (see “Frontier In Space” or “The Green Death”). “The Mutants” premise of just having people with Napoleon complexes ruling their own little part of the universe, with borderline racist overtones in an apartheid system, is almost cartoonish in its simplicity.

While the sets and the acting are okay (though the Mutt costumes are a little bit unbelievable in their appearance), the moral overtones here detract from the story far too much. When satire is done on subjects like inequality, racism and apartheid, it has to be done in a way as to make the viewer think. A great example of this, in fact, is The Goodies episode “South Africa” – substituting the concept of inequality of Africans for that of people who are too short really shows just how stupid the idea of apartheid is. The fact that it is renamed “Apartheight” only serves to further highlight the idiocy of the concept. Whilst a comic approach might not have worked as well in Doctor Who (unless Douglas Adams had written it), the serious nature of the issue is missed totally in the end, to the extent that author Salman Rushdie completely missed the whole anti-racism message in the show and felt moved to mention it in his controversial book The Satanic Verses as an example of racist attitudes in popular media.

Even setting aside the attempted satire of the story, “The Mutants” still suffers terribly from being padded out. Four episodes would have been more than sufficient for this story instead of the six it was given (the same can be said for the following story “The Time Monster”). As Pertwee’s era continued, more and more stories were hampered by being stretched out to six episodes when only enough material for four episodes existed. There are a few notable exceptions but it’s easy to see why Philip Hinchcliffe, taking over as producer for the Tom Baker era, preferred to leave six episode stories for the closing adventure of a series.

RATING
Although the story has its moments and the basic moral core of the piece is a good one, “The Mutants” suffers from being too thin a story for a 6 part run. For a season that boasted a great Dalek opener in “Day Of The Daleks” and the iconic “The Sea Devils”, it ends up being a letdown by comparison. The cast and crew deliver an average episode when they really should’ve been at the top of their game. Unable to match its immediate betters, “The Mutants” gets a disappointing 6/10.

Written and edited by Alex Wilkinson

2.4 – “The Girl In The Fireplace”

STORY
Arriving in the year 5000, The Doctor and his companions attempt to uncover the connection between a derelict spacecraft and a gateway they discover on board that leads back in time to an 18^th Century French fireplace.

REVIEW
“The Girl In The Fireplace” is a personal favourite of mine from Tennant’s second series. It’s a story that shares a link with a previous Moffat two-parter, “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances”. The enemy is not some evil or malicious force, simply a piece of technology performing the function it was designed to do, unaware that someone’s death will be the result of its doing so. The Clockwork Androids are a beautifully realized piece of design, both elegant and increasingly menacing. The emotional connection between The Doctor and Reinette is built very naturally and doesn’t feel forced; if anything, it makes perfect sense that The Doctor would be capable of becoming enamoured with an historical figure that he already greatly admires. Ultimately it’s the chemistry between Sophia Myles as Reinette and Tennant as The Doctor that sells this wonderfully romantic story, perfectly accompanied by Murray Gold’s eloquent score.

The Doctor, Rose and Mickey arrive on a derelict spaceship that has the odd distinction of containing not only human organs running parts of its main systems but also an immaculate French fireplace. Unable to contain his curiosity, The Doctor goes through the fireplace only to discover himself in 18^th Century France in the bedroom of a young girl. She tells him that there’s a monster beneath her bed and ask him if he’s come to help her, so The Doctor takes a look and finds nothing. But when he stands back up there is a masked stranger in the room. Luring it back through the fireplace to the spacecraft, The Doctor and his companions learn that it’s an android but one running entirely by clockwork. When he returns to the little girl’s room, he finds the little girl has grown up. She is in fact Reinette, the Madame de Pompadour who historically was the mistress of King Louis XV. The back and forth of the episode works wonders for the pacing, time never drags whether the action is on the ship or back in 18^th Century France.

Rose and Mickey discover more time windows on the ship, all leading to different moments in Reinette’s life. Seeing her being attacked, The Doctor returns to her and they discover that the androids respond to her direct orders. Thanks to this they learn the android’s true intentions. There’s a lovely little moment here when The Doctor tries to read Reinette’s mind in order to find out more information which has the unforeseen side effect of Reinette being able to read his mind too. She talks about his name being more than a secret and how she understands just how lonely he is. It’s beautifully played by Myles and Tennant and gives us a glimpse of The Doctor’s vulnerability and his longing. The Doctor arrives back on the ship, buying some time with an attempt at drunken acting in order to save a captive Rose and Mickey, revealing to his companions what he has learned. The android’s only purpose is to repair their ship and, due to the literal nature of their programming, they’ve come to believe that harvesting the organs of the woman their ship is named after is the logical solution to that problem. Their ship is 37 years old so when Reinette reaches the age of 37 they believe her brain will be compatible with the ship’s damaged computer core.

The final act features The Doctor at his most chivalrous. He leaps through a time window in the ship on horseback to save Reinette and her assembled guests from the attacking androids, who abandon their plans when they realize The Doctor has destroyed the last of the time portals. Seemingly stranded in the 18^th Century, he spends some time with Reinette and their hinted at romance begins to blossom. We’re never told how much time actually passes, but some time later she reveals to him that her fireplace from her childhood home is now here, she had it moved brick by brick. The Doctor realizes with joy that he can return to the spaceship and tells Reinette to pack her bags – she’s coming with him to the TARDIS to go an explore the universe. But then we get the sting; when The Doctor returns through the fireplace he discovers Reinette has died – the time between the two points isn’t relative, after all. With his companions, he leaves the spacecraft forever and we not only feel his loss but understand it too, thanks in no small part to the excellent performances in this episode. The Doctor doesn’t fall in love easily but if he meets someone that has such a passion and fascination for life and the universe, it’s not hard to see why he would not only love for them but also a little glimmer of who he used to be before the weight of the Time War burdened him.

RATING
Sophia Myles shines as Reinette, bringing wit, sophistication and believable intellect to a woman who more than rivals The Doctor’s own inquisitiveness. Tennant delivers one of his best performances so far in the role of The Doctor and manages to be both chivalrous and vulnerable in equal measure. Though a two-parter might have given the story a bit more room to breathe, Moffat does an excellent job unraveling his story within the 45 minute restrictions. One of the classics of New Who, “The Girl In The Fireplace” merits a marvelous 9/10.

Written and edited by Richey Hackett

“Green Velvet Jackets and Silver Cravats: The Paul McGann Years”

Over the next few months, Richey and myself will be writing articles on each of the eleven Doctors. The purpose of these articles is to take each Doctor and dissect their tenure, exploring each actor’s take on the character and other aspects of their respective eras. To kick things off, I have picked the actor with the least amount of TV episodes (numbering only one) but whose Doctor is still well represented in over 70 original books and numerous audio adventures. I am referring, of course, to Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor.

The Eighth Doctor gets a lot of stick from some in fandom (almost as much as the Sixth and Seventh Doctors). There are those who scream “He’s not canon!”, “He shouldn’t kiss women!”, “His hair’s too long!” and even “Why, oh why, does he look like Jesus Christ?” I have one thing to say to such people in fandom; GET OVER IT. He’s canon, Rusty T Davies made sure twice and the Grand Moff at least three times. The Eighth Doctor was born in turbulent times. Doctor Who had been off the air for 6 years, the TV movie had brought with it new hope for a generation of fans, only for the Americans to decline picking it up as a new series (thank god – having read the ‘Bible‘ for the future series, Fox would of killed it totally). The BBC shelved the show, waiting for a time when they could bring it back. So for the time being the fans were left with just one adventure, featuring the best Doctor we never got to know properly on screen.

Yes, you read that right; Paul McGann was the best Doctor we never had. And here’s why. Paul McGann is the ultimate bridge between the Classic Series of Doctor Who and the New Series of Doctor Who. He embodied all that we thought the Doctor was in his dress style (which I like to pay homage to), in his manner and his mannerisms. This Doctor was not only ’British’ in his way, but also had a touch of other Doctors. Hints of the youth of the Fifth Doctor, the mad edge of the Fourth, the Gizmo James Bond nature of the Third Doctor, small elements of the First, Second, Sixth and Seventh Doctors, and yet also enough of his own persona too. The little way he would repeat words, his glee and enthusiasm for Humans that is typified in his comment to Grace of “I love humans, always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there.” Some who know me know I frequently quote that line, especially in History lessons.

Although we only had this one TV episode back in 1996, we would get something better in the end. With the BBC regaining the rights to the books, they produced a series of stories with the Eighth Doctor. Time War? The books did it many years before RTD did. The writing was very much in the same feel as the New Adventures (having said this, most of the NA writers would also go on to write the BBC books) and was very much adult in tone. It gave us a Doctor that we could imagine without a totally preconceived idea, unlike the other Doctors who we came to know through the television show before the books focused on them. How much of the novels can be considered cannon depends on the individual fan; the Missing Adventures line only started in the early 90’s and the comic book lines took some serious liberties, so I tend not to see them as cannon (take that Grant Morrison and smoke it, still haven‘t forgiven you for killing Jamie).

However, the books themselves suffered a little from tying themselves up in their own canon. Much as the Time War in the books was a great idea, unless you had read certain books (and providing that you could get what Lawrence Miles was hinting at too) you could be lost in the story unless you knew what had gone on before. This was only compounded by the post-war amnesia story arc, followed by the Sabbath/Matrix in Head arcs. This may have been a hindrance to the newer fans, some of which may not have gotten the references from the older New Adventure titles in the BBC books. But it was through these titles that the Eighth Doctor was able to survive. He lived on via the books, giving fans the chance to feel that McGann’s Doctor had been fully embraced into Doctor Who lore, despite the absence of the full TV series that we had all hoped for in 1996.

In 2001, an even bigger step forward was made. A full series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures featuring McGann himself was commissioned by Big Finish Productions, who had the previous year gained the rights to write and produce stories for Doctor‘s Five, Six and Seven. This series of new adventures, featuring new companions and old enemies, had one serious advantage over the books; it was not cannon heavy. Although sticking to the ideas that had been born in the TV series, and even some from the books, you didn’t need an extensive library to know what was happening. It was a new Doctor in the format of the old show, without the wobbly sets and bad effects. The stories from Big Finish would ground the Eighth Doctor and make him accessible. Although there would be an underlying story arc over the course of adventures, anyone could pick up the stories and not worry too much as to what had happened previously. In this way, the audio adventures flowed better than the books had done.

When the news came in 2004 that Doctor Who was finally to be revived with a brand new TV series, the Eighth Doctor BBC novels finally came to an end. The audio adventures, on the other hand, continue to this very day (as this is written, it is 10 years since the first Eighth Doctor audio story). The longevity of the Eighth Doctor has been assured with a space of unknown time between the start of his life and the end of it (his regeneration into the Ninth Doctor, for example, has yet to be shown on TV or explored in the audio adventures). This means we can have endless adventures with McGann’s Doctor until such time as he no longer wishes to be a part of them.

The fundamental draw of the Eighth Doctor for many fans is that he is the most human of the Doctors we have met so far, yet at times he can be the most alien too. The irony of the one episode Doctor is that it gave fandom something they’d never had before or since; a Doctor they could shape into how they saw fit, whether they were fans who watched the show or the fans lucky enough to work on the books and audio adventures. Though it had been done to an extent with the Seventh Doctor, the writers of his stories were sticking to the Cartmel TV plan and how The Doctor had been towards the end of the series. The Eighth Doctor was restricted in no such fashion. He was a newborn Doctor and that therefore meant his defining adventures could be created by the fans, allowing them to take him in the directions they imagined. Because of this unique situation, the Eighth Doctor deserves a place up there as the greatest Doctor we never had because, to put it simply, he was the Doctor we all had a chance to shape in one form or another. That is something we will likely never see again in Doctor Who.

Written and edited by Alex Wilkinson

“The TV Movie” (1996)

STORY
Transporting the remains of his nemesis The Master back to their home planet of Gallifrey, The Doctor is suddenly plunged into a fight for his life that will lead to rebirth – and confrontation – for them both.

DISCLAIMER: As the only television outing for Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor, this review is going to be a little longer than we usually go for on RTW. It’s a movie, after all, so there’s more to discuss.

REVIEW
Smashing your head against a brick wall whilst repeating “Why?!” at the top of your lungs would be a good place to start if you fancy trying to recreate the feelings of Doctor Who fans everywhere after they witnessed what was lazily titled “The TV Movie”. Several years after the show’s cancellation, the promise of a return for The Doctor seemed like a gift from the gods; could this be the starting point for a complete Who revival? It could well have been if not for the complete lack of solid ideas to drive the project forward. With the always watchable Paul McGann cast in the lead role – and a torch-passing cameo for Sylvester McCoy – this should’ve been the moment when Doctor Who was reborn. Instead, it managed to get the show shelved for another 8 years.

The Doctor is on his way back from Skaro, home of the Daleks, having picked up the remains of The Master, who has been tried and executed, in order to return them to Gallifrey. It comes to something when you manage to have three major plot holes within the opening minutes of your story. First of all, why would the Daleks bother with a trial for anybody, let alone The Master? Secondly, why would The Doctor risk getting killed by setting foot on the planet of his sworn enemies for the sake of a man who is nothing less than his arch enemy? And thirdly, in perhaps the biggest plot hole of all time, HOW is any of this happening when Skaro was destroyed in “Remembrance Of The Daleks”?! It makes you wonder if the writers of this garbage had even seen Doctor Who before.

Things go from bad to worse as the TARDIS’ flight path is altered by The Master in the form of a gelatinous snake, bringing it crashing to Earth on New Year’s Eve, 1999. Wasn’t he dead a moment ago? Yes, but now he’s a snake. Makes perfect sense if you remove your brain and put it in your washing machine on a spin cycle before placing it back in your head. Having landed, The Doctor decides to step outside for some fresh air (rather than search the TARDIS for Master Snake, of course). I remember very well reading about this moment in Doctor Who Magazine before the movie was screened; they described it as “The Doctor bursts through the TARDIS’ double doors into a hail of gunfire.” That sounded pretty exciting to me as a 13 year old. What actually happens, however, is this; The Doctor casually strolls out of the TARDIS, turns around to lock the doors, turns back and we get a comedy double-take from the street gang who then proceed to fire three shots into The Doctor’s chest. He slumps to the ground and they run off. Doesn’t quite pack the same punch, does it?

The Doctor is taken to hospital after a boy named Chang Lee phones for help (he was being pursued by the street gang) and helps himself to The Doctor’s personal effects while he’s at it. At the hospital we’re introduced to The Doctor’s companion for this adventure Doctor Grace Holloway (played by Daphne Ashbrook). Her relationship with The Doctor gets off to a glowing start when she manages to botch the operation to save his life and subsequently induce a heart attack, killing him. On a scale of competence, even Adric scores higher than this. Master Snake also appears to have hitched a ride in the ambulance because he now reappears and takes possession of the ambulance driver’s body. And so we are introduced to the wonderful Eric Roberts as The Master in a scene where he’s deep-throating a CGi snake. I like Eric Roberts, don’t get me wrong, but whether he missed the point or was given poor direction he is absolutely cringe worthy as The Master. Anyone who criticizes John Simm’s unstable performance in New Who would do well to compare and contrast for a little perspective.

Whilst The Master is busy killing the ambulance drivers wife for no discernible reason, The Doctor begins to regenerate as he lies in the morgue. It’s an hilarious bit of CGi face replacement that looks as though every bone in The Doctor’s face is made of Playdoh. The Eighth Doctor has arrived and, completely devoid of any memory, wanders out of the hospital and proceeds to stalk Grace all the way home. Naturally it takes some time to convince her he is the same man she managed to kill earlier and he goes on to explain how the world will end tonight if The Master finds his TARDIS and opens the Eye Of Harmony. She takes all of this rather well actually, not once attempting to flee the crazy man who says he’s from outer space. Meanwhile, The Master has recruited Chang Lee and has indeed found the TARDIS, using his new pal to open the Eye Of Harmony. What follows is barely worth going into any detail on; The Doctor and Grace steal an atomic clock in order to use it to repair the TARDIS. The Master uses his super effective spit technique to control Grace. There’s a confrontation in the TARDIS, featuring The Master killing Chang Lee and later Grace, attempting to use The Doctor to open the Eye for good so he can steal The Doctor’s regenerations, Grace fixing the TARDIS and freezing time long enough for The Doctor to push The Master into the Eye leading to time reverting and bringing Chang Lee and Grace back to life. And it all ends with The Doctor kissing Grace in a moment that had virginal Doctor Who fans squirming with discomfort. For the rest of us, it was just The Doctor getting some sugar. No biggie.

The plot makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and never once attempts to give us a story worthy of The Doctor’s adventures. The supporting cast is appalling; only McCoy and McGann save this from being a total waste of time. McGann isn’t given enough time to develop his Doctor (he’d have to wait for the audio adventures years later for that) as he spends most of his time on screen confused about just who the hell he actually is. The attempts to link past Doctor Who lore into the story fall flat on their arse by merit of being bollocks (see my earlier mentions of Daleks, Skaro, Master execution, et al). McGann shows enough flare and charm with the character to warrant his own series where we could’ve had better writing, better acting and the opportunity to get to know the Eighth Doctor but thanks to this total turkey of a movie that never came to be. Instead we would have to wait until 2005 when Russell T Davies revived the show with Christopher Eccleston manning the TARDIS. It’s no surprise that many Who fans long for McGann to return to the show just for one episode, one more story, as he was blatantly dealt such a shitty deal here. Only the morbidly curious should check this out and only because it’s the only Eighth Doctor “episode” to date. But be warned that you will find nothing within but sheer disappointment and the jaded promise of what could have been.

RATING
Sadly, the Eighth Doctor’s sole televised outing is little more than a mess of bad ideas, poor writing and miscast supporting actors. McGann himself is charming in the role of The Doctor, in spite of being hobbled by a script that required him to have no identity for the majority of the film. In his continuing audio adventures he has gone on to become an excellent Doctor but with no return to the television show in sight, this has to stand as his only entry in the show’s canon. McGann deserved better and so did the fans. A missed opportunity at best, the TV movie earns a lowly 3/10.

Written and edited by Richey Hackett

17.2 – “City Of Death”

STORY
The Doctor and Romana are enjoying some time soaking up the culture in Paris. But trouble is not far behind; just what are the Count and Countess Scarlioni up to and what are their plans for the Mona Lisa? What is causing the time distortions that The Doctor and Romana have felt? And just who is Duggan and what is his role in all of this?

REVIEW
So where do we begin? Although the writer of this is ‘”David Agnew”, it is in fact a pseudonym for David Fisher (who conceived the original idea), Graham Williams (series producer) and Douglas Adams (God). Adams’ contributions shine through as he shows his skill for comic sci-fi writing that we all would come to later love in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. The series had opened with “Destiny Of The Daleks”, a script that Terry Nation clearly phoned in on a bad line. It not only features Davros now speaking with more of a Scottish accent then the Dalekesque vocal harmony that Wisher had given the character but also a gang of Daleks that look more like a child’s entry for a Blue Peter competition than the gleaming bad-ass machines from the previous story. “City Of Death” manages to follow this minor bad patch by bringing something to Doctor Who that had been missing for quite a while; a healthy combination of comedy and horror.

We start with a landscape shot of an alien world but it is in fact Earth in the distant past. A spaceship is attempting to take off. The ship’s pilot is Scaroth (whose face looks as if someone put a lot of green spaghetti over his head with a meat ball in the middle) who fails to get the ship to launch, the end result being the ship exploding into little pieces. We then catch up with The Doctor and Romana (in a rather fetching school girl outfit) who, for once, are not in some Devonshire quarry. The BBC actually managed to spend some money on the program and shipped the crew to a small place in Europe known as Paris. After some lovely shots of them swanning about, The Doctor and Romana are seen seated in a cafe where they feel the effects of a ‘time distortion’. Deciding to go to The Louvre to look at one of the ‘great treasures of the universe’ (the Mona Lisa), they run into Duggan who is tailing the Countess Scarlioni . Hi-jinks ensue and the three are taken to the Count and Countess’ home, only to discover that there are six Mona Lisa’s bricked up and waiting to be sold once the real one has been stolen. This hides the true intention of Scarlioni; to fund his time travel experiments as a means to get back in time to the spacecraft explosion and prevent it from happening. The Doctor must stop him at all costs as this means that life on Earth will be lost, for it was the explosion that caused life to form on this planet. To cut a long story short, The Doctor finds out that Scarlioni is in fact Scaroth, who is splintered through time and using a mental link to each version of Scaroth to plan his deed. Needless to say, The Doctor manages to stop the plans of Scaroth and make sure that history remains on its true course.

“City Of Death” ranks as one of my top five Doctor Who stories of all time. It manages to combine a top acting cast. Tom Chadbon is superb casting as Duggan, the bumbling private detective with a habit for punching first and asking questions later. The Count and Countess Scarlioni are played brilliantly by Julian Glover and Catherine Schell. Both bounce off each other as a believable villainous couple but it is Glover who brings a double edged side to Scarlioni/Scaroth that oozes charm. Even Tom Baker & Lalla Ward are on top form as The Doctor and Romana as they begin their onscreen (and later off-screen) partnership. But my favourite actors in this story happen to only have a cameo. John Cleese and Eleanor Bron as the two art gallery visitors bring an amusing moment of surreal humour to the show. Discussing the artistic nature of the TARDIS, neither playing the part for a cheap laugh, both relishing their moment on screen, making a believable couple who think that the TARDIS dematerialising is just part of the artists show (and having been to art shows, I could see why.)

But the real kudos belongs to the man who wrote “City Of Death”, Douglas Adams. He is often taken to task for adding too much ‘joke humour’ into the show but it was hardly down to just him; there were pressures from the top to lighten the show after the Hitchcliffe/Holmes Gothic Horror era of the mid 70’s. Adams managed to inject into his story what the show really needed, a comedic streak with the seriousness needed to pull it off. Stories like “City Of Death” show how to use humour well, something sorely lacking in the JNT era of Doctor Who.  It didn’t really make a proper comeback until the 2005 series, though “Love & Monsters” (a story that I hate with a passion) took it too far. Anyone who states that the Douglas Adams era was to jokey should watch that and see that Adams was being far more serious.

RATING
The last true classic, in any sense, until the end of series 18 with “Logopolis”, ”City Of Death” marks a high point in the 48 years of the show. What makes it a joy to watch is that it contains all the hallmarks of a classic story; good writing, good casting, good directing and great acting. Beautiful shots of Paris add to the stories flow without detracting from it like on other occasions where location filming in other countries was used (such as “The Two Doctors”). To this day it remains one of the best Tom Baker stories out there and one of the best stories in the history of the show. It won’t happen often, believe me, but “City Of Death” earns a solid 10/10 from me.

Written and edited by Alex Wilkinson

6.7 – “A Good Man Goes To War”

PLOT
The Doctor and Rory gather together a small army and head off to rescue Amy and the baby from the mysterious Madame Kovarian. But little do they know that they’re walking straight into a trap.

REVIEW
After all the suspense, the questions and the riddles we finally get the pay-off; and I’m pleased to report that it’s done beautifully. Up until this point, Matt Smith’s tenure has provided us with some highs and some lows but nothing truly outstanding in terms of Doctor Who as a whole. Now we finally have the first of what will hopefully be many outstanding episodes for the Eleventh Doctor in “A Good Man Goes To War”, which not only delivers healthy doses of action and emotional connection but also an interesting insight into how the rest of the universe views The Doctor. The main cast all turn in great performances here that are backed up by a strong supporting cast of intriguing characters, most of whom owe a debt of some kind to The Doctor and thus are only too happy to answer his call to arms.

The pre-credits sequence alone is something to cheer about; Rory goes to enlist the help of the Cybermen and is nothing short of formidable. In fact, throughout the whole of this episode, we really get to see Rory coming into his own and it’s something of a relief to see him becoming something more than just the put-upon husband. He is strong and in control, capable of rallying the troops and of being the hero Amy always really thinks of him as.  Amy herself spends much of the episode trying her best to keep a grip on the situation, desperate to protect her daughter but ultimately helpless and needing “her boys” to be her strength this time.

The Doctor leads the assault on Demon’s Run to get Amy and the baby back from Madam Kovarian and the soldiers of god who have allied themselves with the Headless Monks (who really are quite unpleasant under those hoods) but even when things have gone according to plan, it seems too easy. This is the crucial mistake of The Doctor where he truly falls further than he ever has before – he allows his anger to blind him to the obvious trap being set up. The baby is rescued (we get a lovely scene between Amy, Rory and The Doctor when they are reunited) but when the true battle begins it’s all been for nothing; the baby is another clone, like the one Kovarian used of Amy, who is destroyed by this revelation that her daughter isn’t safe after all.

And then we come to it, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. River Song shows up and gives The Doctor a little lesson in humility, explaining to him that his reputation has finally reached the point where people are so afraid of him that they’ll do the most terrible things just to try and defeat him or escape from him. Turning Amy and Rory’s baby into a weapon is the ultimate goal of Madame Kovarian, a weapon to be used in the future against The Doctor, who River explains is just the latest in a long line of people that think of the word “Doctor” not as healer or wise man, but as warrior and thing to be feared. It’s a great speech and is beautifully played by Alex Kingston. And then she finally reveals the truth – the little baby is named Melody Pond and that name actually comes out as River Song in the language of other races who have no words for melody or pond. River is the baby! Again, it’s played perfectly and The Doctor’s reaction to it is charming, he’s all smiles and celebration because he knows that if River is here, alive and well, then he still has a chance to put things right and make up for his mistakes. Matt Smith is on fire this episode, going from dark and angry to vainglorious, then humbled and finally joyful at finally understanding. Where the story can possibly go from here is anyone’s guess but this is one of the best cliffhangers yet in New Who as it really does have the potential to take the story in a hundred different directions.

RATING
Well written, well paced, great turns from the leads and a strong supporting cast all combine to make this not only an excellent episode of Doctor Who but quite probably the best of Matt Smith’s run to date. The revelation of River’s identity was wonderful (if a bit predictable once we knew the baby’s name) and the story ends right at the peak of the viewer’s anticipation, leaving us hungry for more. Nothing but the very best all round, the first 10/10 for Doctor Eleven.

Written and edited by Richey Hackett