'BoomTown'

"Guess whose back? THE SLITHEEN!"

That’s basically what we got in last week’s trailer, and I can almost here Phil Collinson saying the above word in his excited 'trust me it'll be good' voice. 

The thing is it’s not half bad, and actually saves the Slitheen from having to be wiped from our minds.

I'm back bitches!
And I've brought a motherfucking visible zip!
(A.K.A. a good director)

First things first - Boomtowns plot is utterly ridiculous. It’s daft and silly and really doesn't make a huge amount of sense. HOWEVER - It is a brilliantly written episode with some great character moments (the Mickey stuff isn't 'great' but the rest more than makes up for it). It’s also incredibly sweet and quite funny.

It’s different and incredibly camp - but I enjoy this episode and its one of the tightest scripts RTD has written for the show.

But enough of that, let’s see what’s in the episode!

This is one of those times when he get to prove ourselves right. It’s like in series 5 where we see some pretty terrible looking Daleks. In fact they then look pretty good when seen in the two-part finale.

The same thing happens with the Slitheen here, sure they don't look 'great' but the look a hell of a lot better than when Boak was directing, then again most things do as he's one of the least inspired directors to work on New Who.

The opening to this episode is overall pretty creepy and very well lit. Under Joe Ahearne's directing the show really improves the Slitheens look and also the tone to the monsters. They stop being silly and really seem like a threat which speaks wonders to the episode as there is only one here, Margaret, the survivor from the Downing street who teleported out.

Ahearne's builds up brilliantly to the scientist’s death, helped by some great dialogue. Not to mention RTD basically telling us the exact danger in the episode within the first few moments, it introduces a rather different episode.

From there into a great establishing shot of Cardiff - I'm sold. So far, so good.

One of the greatest things about this episode is the banter. It reads more like a Steven Moffat episode in terms of the continuous jokes between all the episodes, helped along by Christopher Eccleston and John Barrowman’s humorous acting.

Oh and 'Into Time and Space' is brilliant, yes it’s smug and silly but it’s funny and cheeky.

Margaret’s 'No Photographs' line is another pretty daft bit of the episode. It seems everyone has forgotten who she was in Aliens of London during the entire election and everything after it. Maybe we should ignore this big fat and rather obvious plot hole, the line is only to draw attention to her hiding from The Doctor, unfortunately RTD is concentrating on this

Don't take photographs of the plot hole!

It does lead to some great jokes, as the journalist rattles through the different deaths surrounding the project and Margaret trying to give explanation - again very funny.

As we learn more about the Nuclear Plant it also becomes obvious this is another mammoth plot hole. Firstly the electorate haven't just forgotten Margaret was a mass murderer but also they quite like their castle and no one would want it replaced by a Nuclear Power Plant.

Its only when Margaret stops herself from killing the Journalist because she is pregnant and in a relationship. Some might call this another plot hole since Margaret was planning to blow everyone up anyway, but arguably Margaret up to now is just doing what she thinks she should do and only now is she reminded of her now dead family and of those she has killed.

For a Slitheen to look sad and for us to sympathise with it after Aliens of London making them look like men in over-sized rubber suits, once again Ahearne gains some points.

The Doctor arriving in the Mayors offices is another really brilliant and very memorable moment. Every moment is light and fluffy but in a very funny and once again cheeky way. The best part being the teleport scene but also the 'She's climbing out the window isn't she?' line.

So sure the teleport scene makes no sense, but it’s very funny and it’s here that really solidifies the fact that RTD is just having complete fun in this episode. 

As I watched the episode I found that I wanted to write down every single line in my review. Depressingly I can't, so you'll have to go watch. Least to say it’s very very funny and light and really quite great. This seems to be what RTD planned

Bad Wolf is solidified as a concept with this episode as well just in case you haven't noticed it at all.

Is that a meme?
Is that a fucking meme?

From here it gets dark. The Slitheen world has execution. The Doctor really becomes her executioner in this episode, choosing not to help her. This takes over as the theme of the episode, mixed with the idea if someone should be forgiven and where the line between deserving to die and deserving to kill someone is.

The look in the eye scene where Margaret goes around each of the group, testing their resolve is very good, and RTD really sets the dark/light tone of the series here after a full series of very mixed tones in each episode we see the series deal with some more serious themes.

The Doctor taking Margaret out for dinner is a pretty fun scenario. Its half him proving his unwavering resolve and her constant attempts at escape. The best bits are of course The Doctors swiping them all aside very easily and Eccleston once again really manages to make it funny.

It’s an odd episode this, especially from RTD - he isn't afraid here of going very dark and very slow. There really isn't an overall plot. It’s just one long conversation. The best part of it

Right...a downside...Rose and Mickey. It’s odd and strange and really makes Rose just seem pretty selfish. Mickey's knock back at her is well deserved, she just doesn't deserve to complain about who he's dating and she seems to lose her ability to think. It’s good that she seems to understand his anger when he explains what she does to him, but she never seems very sympathetic or clear with Mickey.

Mickey asking Rose to come back to him when she eventually does only for her to turn and run is very very sloppy writing from RTD, he just refuses to give Mickey any kind of resolve except for his continuous and frankly tiring writing of the 'unrequiented love'. It’s dull and lazy and basically adds to the pointlessness of Rose and Mickey’s conversation.

So Margaret’s real plan is shown, she's linked the Extrapolator to the TARDIS, using it to blow the planet and escape.

Now this is the other downside to the story. It basically falls down when they need to introduce the heart of the TARDIS. It’s all slightly easy and the TARDIS giving her what she wants is kind of a cheat to the themes being dealt with for me. It’s still a very emotional moment however and gives Margaret what she wants; it’s just done too easily for me.

It is needed for the finale set up of course, but I think it could have been done differently personally.

Sorry, forgot to foreshadow this in anyway for the episode.
Sorry, forgot to foreshadow this in anyway for the finale.

I do quite like the end with Mickey looking at Rose but not going to her. Mickey continues to get thrown around as a character, servicing whatever RTD wants to do with Rose. Here however he is almost the downside to travelling in time. The person who gets left behind.

Rose does sort of realise this, and I really love how she almost wishes she could change her choices and how she deals with Mickey.

It makes up for the earlier dialogue between them which was no more than filler material.

Overall am giving this a shocking 9/10, I expect more a 7, but I really really enjoyed this episode.

Sure it’s all 100% filler material and yes some of the themes are given a far too easy fix and ignore button but the banter and humour is just very very good. This is the sort of good smugness that should have been in series 2, instead we got some pretty two dimensional stuff though, but more on that later!

Unfortunately we don't get an episode like this one till Series 5's 'The Lodger', at least in terms of complete humour.

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

So frankly this is probably the best of series 1.

So frankly this is probably Moffat’s best episode.

So frankly this is probably the best of New Who so far.

So frankly this is probably the best of Who.

I could start this review with any of these three sentences and they’d be instantly correct. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances 2-parter really is amazing TV and wonderful Who.

Constantly people argue when a New Who story seems like Classic Who etc. etc. and frankly this episode does it the most. It really is just plainly and solidly ‘who’ and no doubt about it. It is of course able to beat any episode you put up against it but we’ll stay off that subject as it may cause some slight (but wrong) debate.

We kick off with ‘The Empty Child’ diving directly into the action. The Doctor and Rose are chasing a vessel through the time vortex and things don’t seem to be going too great. No instead the vessel jumps time tracks to World War Two London at the height of the blitz.

What follows are some brilliantly funny scenes where The Doctor works out exactly where they are, and Rose gets hung from a hot air balloon – as you do.

How come you never told me not to cling to strange ropes mummy?

In pops Captain Jack – frankly one of the best creations of New Who – and the episode takes a whole different tone, instead things slow down – both allowing us to get to know Jack, plot exposition to be set up and of course for creepy zombie child to rage across London looking for his mummy.

To be honest there isn’t much to talk about in these two episodes other than mainly Jack and the Gas mask monsters. Usually I can talk about every scene and character and what works, but this is the first episode that feels really tight with the whole plot revolving around itself and to be honest just has nothing to complain about.

Jack is just fantastic, sexually-open, charming, sexy, action packed, he is all in all a very strong character, but looking here he sounds rather clichéd. He really isn’t though and it all feels completely and 100% new in how the character acts and basically exists. Adding another layer – one which is far too often forgotten by Torchwood fans in their personal characterisation of Jack – he’s a bad man. He’s a con artist and really is an incompetent one. Cowardly and untrustworthy, Jack gets some amazing characterisation – leading to his complete turnaround at the end of part 2, put down quite simply by The Doctor as ‘psychology’, its with this story that Jack makes such a big mark on Sci-Fi despite only appearing in 3 stories, something that always surprises me.

In one noticeable scene, Jack literally stops time spinning, just by dancing.
This is because Jack's blood is Awesome Positive (A+ short-hand)

Onto the gas mask monsters. Probably one of Moffat’s best in my opinion, though fandom probably forgets them amongst the debate just because they don’t really lend to a sequel called ‘Time of The Gas Mask Monsters’. Instead there simply terrifying with ‘Are you my mummy?’ really defining Doctor Who and to be honest under many other Executive Producers it would have been all thrown in the bin for being too scary and too dark – of course they’d have been an idiot and the show would be cancelled by now. The concept behind a wee boy looking for his mummy is very strong and out rates the rather dull reasoning behind flesh eating zombies which is they revert to their sole existence – ‘to feed’ – instead a little boy just wants his mummy. Other than the emotional side of things, the scary side of things, the idea of peoples physical and mental existence completely changing really is terrifying – its an unstoppable enemy, unbeatable, once it gets you – that thing is going to happen to you and you will become one of ‘them’.

Also you have to love the cheeky cliffhanger get out:

'Go to your room!'

'I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words.'

Probably being the most surreal, amusing and straight forward resolution you could imagine. In fact the story stumbles nowhere and so any moment such as this makes you think 10/10, and unlike all the episodes I've reviewed so far Moffat continues this for the entire 2-parter and never lets up. 

It sounds daft but honestly no scene in this 2-parter is wasted or is any worse than the last - its all important, funny and tense - every second of it.

This brings us to the lovely plot and emotional centre point - Nancy. I do love Nancy, shes just a wonderful character and to be honest if theres something to back the idea of 'themes' in TV then its this episode as the sexual theme throughout is so important here and its all done rather brilliantly. The revelation that she is in fact the mother of the empty child is one of Moffat's great talents - making the seemingly obvious completely oblivious to us. We really don't see it coming and somehow he keeps it hidden behind the surface when really it makes complete sense and is the only explanation for what is going.

The real Dark Fairytale - and an emotional one at that.
More this please Moffat.

The directing in this should also be noted, in fact the entire production is fantastic. This type of episode is make or break in terms of its directing, and it really shines here - brilliantly sweeping along with Moffats writing.

So for this episode I'll award a nice 10/10 - Brilliant, fantastic, wonderful. Doctor Who. Nothing more anyone could ask for frankly.

So with Jack now on board we speed ahead into Boom Town as the show really finds its footing, and like series 3 we get a brilliant second-half run of episodes.

Father's Day

Fathers Day is arguably one of the best of series 1 and one of the most adult of the entire show.

When I say ‘adult’ thats a silly word, as its not ‘adult’ to loose your father or wish him to return, I suppose all I mean is there are no bug-eyed monsters – well there are, but there not the main goings on.

Although I don’t particularly agree with the ideas of Paradox’s in anyway and to be honest the show has pretty much kept away from the idea Paul Cornell creates here, when dealing with time plots (Steven Moffat I am looking right at you). But then again I have a strict rule when watching who:

‘If it works and makes sense within the individual story then its fine.’

So it makes no real difference either way – its one reason Chimes of midnight (Audio) love it so much, we know the end makes no sense whatsoever (it really doesn’t – time for Edith hasn’t changed in anyway frankly), but within the story it kind of does – and its a great story too.

We may be badly conceived and not make sense, but were bloody good plot devices.

The same is true here. The story of Rose wanting to save her Dad again and then against all rational logic goes and saves his life – much to the fury of The Doctor. The creatures that arrive have come to sterilise the universe of all live because of this action has damaged time – this doesn’t really make much sense as time would have had to create them, to be honest they should have just be time creatures who live in the vortex and came through a weak spot to feast, but never mind how that’s a really good idea – this is what’s happening in this episode and to enjoy it has to be accepted and to be honest it does make sense within what were told in the episode.

So the giant bird monster thingys (which are really rather impressive to be honest, as are their scenes attacking the church – which look great and very realistic) are eating people and The Doctor is annoyed at Rose. As is a Who tradition, the duo get split up. The Doctor goes off in a huff ready to leave Rose trapped with her Father in the past. This is actually a bit of a plot hole, I get The Doctor is annoyed but you’d think with his knowledge of time he’d be dragging Rose kicking and screaming into the TARDIS and away before they damage time even more. But again never mind, thats not what this episode is about.

The Doctor finds the TARDIS is just a blue box- its contents empty – and Rose goes to a wedding where she bumps into a rather nasty Jacki. Although to be fair to ‘Jack’s’ its her husband’s fault she is so edgy. I like this idea, it breaks the fairy tale and points out that we all create an image of people in our head as being perfect – this is what Jacki teaches Rose, and its learning here that she is completely wrong that leads straight to the events in the finale. Unfortunately we never really see this characterisation coming into focus, instead Davies takes to using plots and random name drops in the next few series to create his stories. Its only with The Doctor in the specials we see this again, and to be honest I’d have liked a bit more in series 2-4.

I'm a man trapped in a box!

Some of the characterisation of Rose here isn’t very likable though. Her treatment of The Doctor is like a spoilt child – who just expects him to return. Where as so far in the series she has been almost a helping hand for The Doctor’s sadness, here she abuses it and just expects that because of it he can’t reject her. The worst moment in this is her smile as he comes running too her.

For me it makes no sense, I get in the first argument she was angry but here she is just a bit manipulative and almost enjoys her ‘imagined’ power over him. This is never done before or alluded to before this episode and never comes up again. In fact the roles reverse with Rose needing him and being rejected by him. I think this was maybe an attempt to make the relationship mature and troubled, but instead rather than making it seem they need each other – it came across as rather nasty of Rose. Especially since its alluded to Rose planning her actions here (which while I don’t believe should have been enough for the characterisation here), so overall she just seems very controlling, manipulative and childish.

Maybe I’m wrong and she is supposed to appear ‘too pleased for her own good’ over saving her Father, and it’s not until later she realises the consequences of her actions.

So with giant monsters attacking The Doctor, Rose and the gang run inside the church.

Theres not much to say here – the church stuff could do with a bit more danger, but then again thats not the point. The conversations here are too fast and too emotional to re-write, go watch it ‘cause its brilliant.

The most wonderful thing about it? Pete working things out, bit by bit. This is extremely well scripted, as without in obvious remarks or ‘Eureka!’ moments, the script makes complete sense with Pete working things out. It takes a very experienced and confident script writer to do this, so great work to Paul and Ruski on this episode (Yeah I’m gonna start calling him Ruski – what’d’ya think?).

Okay so the conclusion was easy to guess at this point.
But who cares, its still awesome.

This of course brings us onto the Rose-Jacki-Pete storyline perfectly, mainly because it’s not even a link and was in fact what I was just talking about. So Jacki is rightfully defence – well a little bit attacking but then Rose has walked into her territory to be fair. Pete is confused but also very emotional when he works out who Rose is – its a lovely little moment (I say little, its actually the most important moment of series 1 and 2, but you know what I mean), and really pushes out that Pete just isn’t the guy Jacki described to Rose. He is a man, not a saviour, not some kind of clichéd father figure ‘rock’ – Just Pete.

I love the moment where The Doctor realises the TARDIS key is burning, and that he can in fact save the day, and fix what was meant to be fixed.

Jumping away from that for a moment, I adore the idea that while angry The Doctor can’t let Pete fulfil his destiny and die. It could save the world and he wouldn’t dare tell him. I love that, it’s very well...Doctorly (Ugh I feel dirty just using that word).

Back to the TARDIS returning – I also am aware I haven’t even talked about the telephones, music or anything, if you really want to know I think its really cool, even if they did balls up the quote in the telephone – so the TARDIS is returning but stupidly Rose holds Rose. Well Jacki throws her at her and this causes a massive paradox (I don’t believe in paradoxes but I accept it as I said) and the reaper like creatures get in and swallow The Doctor.

I find the next bit really contrived and to be honest either bad directing or bad scripting, I can’t be sure. So the thing swallows The Doctor then pointlessly flies backwards and knocks the TARDIS key out. Doesn’t really work for me but I suppose it makes sense.

So the ‘Oh my god The Doctor is dead!’, is it ever really explained if he remembers the events of this episode? Since time changes? Can’t mind right now.

So the clever Pete Tyler works out what has been kept from him. His death by car accident will save the world from destruction. Suddenly Pete is the fairy tale father Rose was told as a child – Pete may just be a man, but overall he is a fantastic Father and like most Fathers is willing to die for his family, especially his daughter.

Rose holds his hand and he passes, everything has gone back. The Doctor takes her away.

None of the end bit made sense of course as there is a giant paradox created when they try to change the story young Rose is told – but hey, we’ll ignore that. As I said ‘Chimes of Midnight’.

This is a lovely episode, which I would argue is quite flawed plot-wise, but its importance and strong characterisation will act as a driving force for much of the series, at least till Rose leaves.

So a 9/10 from me – great episode.

The Long Game

The Long Game really isn’t as bad as some like to claim. Sure Adam is annoying and ruins this episode as well as last weeks, and yes of course its a bit cheap and everyone is basically in Top Shop outfits. Yet is that not a good thing? The single most dreadful thing with sci-fi is that often future people are either in military uniform, boring and pointless uniforms or fucking stupid outfits that the designers believe are futuristic but make no fashion sense whatsoever.

So I quite like the idea that everyone is wearing some quite simplistic clothing, but yes some design changes here and there would have been nice, but I just like to think that the ultimate metaphor for Rupert Murdoch buys Top Shop at some point and so holds back fashion for tens of thousands of years.

They really shouldn't have listened when that guys said 21st Century retro was in.
But then again its better than the fucking Dollhouse clothing department.
Though they did listen when the big blob thing said holes in skulls are cool.

For me that really is the only bad thing – Adam and the designs. Otherwise its all a pretty good episode, and while clothing is a bit dodgy, frankly a lot of the set design is brilliantly realised and frankly we get some of the best direction we really get in Who. At least for much of series 1 and 2.

So the basic plot line is The Doctor and Rose land on Satellite 5 a news broadcaster – the only news broadcaster – here they find that the human race is being held back on old technologies and being controlled by a Simon Pegg’s villain who works for the slimy Jagrafess. The character of Eva, a self proclaimed anarchist is written very well, and played brilliantly too, jumping from the soft hearted and light girl to a dark and quite controlled freedom fighter.

I did think though that maybe its a bit simple to really just have an editor and an escaped lava lamp gel hold control over a fascist state. There is sometimes a claim that we should get more longer stories, and this idea could have been fleshed out over a few episodes with a bit more believability (also a plot to resolve why everyone is so thick – something in the food or a perception filter would have been nice).

So as things are going along nicely – Adam shoves his head in the way – literally as well. So much dull and boring stuff with the computer technologies, fact is we don’t care and Adam was a bad idea in the first place.

Its also a bad idea for me to even go into it in much detail, so expect dull little paragraphs spread throughout just to moan about him.

Unfortunatly Adam hasn't had his fucking head smashed in, its just a stupid fucking plot device to give his character reason for bothering to fucking exist and ruin a good episode.

The best thing about this episode is that it features some of the best Rose/Doctor dialogue in the first series. They play off one another brilliantly, especially in working things out and investigating, but also in Roses showing off to the dreary Adam.

Floor 500 – bit of security as I said earlier would be rather nice, but hey maybe the Jagrafess is just a bit shy?

Also why is Eva now being used as a worker drone? There is a limited amount of connection ports so you’d think the best would be used. Then again they need the cold looking zombies to arrest The Doctor and Rose.

Have I mentioned how awesome Simon Pegg is? He really needs a two parter in Who frankly, cause he is a brilliant villain and a little bit underused to be honest.

He is a bit of an evil Doctor to be honest, a Sherlock like character who needs the answers and is completely taken in by the impossibility of Rose and The Doctor. They don’t scare him, they just fascinate him.

Okay so the design department ran out of budget over the manacles, the worst jail ever created, its not even connected to anything at the back! Again it makes this fascist empire look a bit rubbish, get some handcuffs and a cell at least.

Defences? Defences! We don't need any fucking defences, we just need a stationary blob monster!

Okay so Adam sending all the information back in time interrupts this current broadcast. In what has to be the most idiotic plot put together – because frankly he has no way of processing the information on the other side – he’ll have to wait about 18,000 years just to process it. Pen and paper would have been better – and anyway, why exactly does he do it? To make money? I think someone might notice if someone is cutting into peoples head and accessing raw information without any kind of science to back up why or how they developed it.

Okay so the conclusion is ruined once more by the lack of security – but if you just watch and accept what is happening it all makes sense within the plot itself. Its a reality hole, not a plot hole. So Cathica saves the day, turning the heating up to max – seems RTD just got the rust for The End of the World in but never mind.

So with water pouring into the systems the computers break down, basically ruining all the plans. So Rose breaks out of the handcuffs by well struggling – sure...I like this episode but you do need to ignore some things. Think Victory of the Daleks.

The Jagarafess’s design is pretty awesome too. Its a bit basic, and why its doing what its doing is never really explained but thanks to series 5 we can just pretend the reason fell through a crack in time. I personally choose to believe that many of the people are sent to the Daleks, and this is foreshadowing to Bad Wolf, but I can’t remember if this is ever stated. I’ll correct it in my future reviews of Bad Wolf if I have to.

I will mysteriously use my sharp teeth to turn you cold and zombie like.

The main characterisation in this episode for The Doctor is that he moves on and leaves it to others to sort things out. Unfortunately The Doctor will see in Bad Wolf, just why he is wrong in doing this and how his inability to stay and sort things out is overall damaging to his view on the universe.

Unfortunately he does the same thing in Parting of the Ways after being shown its a bad idea, so maybe they should have ignored this characterisation?

Oh and Adam leaves in what has to be the single most pointless character arc ever conceived. Annoyingly it was made by the king of character arcs, RTD.

So for this episode I’m going for a nice 7.5/10. Its not amazing, but doesn’t deserve the stick it gets frankly. I really enjoyed it on first watch and actually find it one of the more rewatchable episodes of Who.

Changing

So am going to do these reviews a bit different.

Firstly I'll be reviewing in a more static manner, just reviewing episodes I feel like reviewing in any series.

Why? I find my reviews to the episodes I'm not very excited about to be a bit rubbish and tbh not very fun.

Dalek

A fact about that Daleks is that there are simply a lot of rubbish Dalek episodes. NuWho seems to have mainly gotten around this by just making the Dalek episodes as quick moving, exciting and brilliant as possible.

Doomsday sees them fight the Cybermen, making a surprise appearance to form one of the shows greatest cliffhangers – one which left many screaming ‘How have they never done this before?’ and rightly so.

Journey’s End sees them all destroyed very easily by Donna Noble, while a rubbish conclusion it is a great moment for Donna's character.

Victory of the Daleks sees them regenerating themselves – or even degenerating themselves as they dive back to what they call there ‘original forms’. Why this happens I’m not actually sure as suddenly their casing seems to become genetically part of them.

The Big Bang sees a single stone Dalek fighting to kill The Doctor, although to be honest the fact it wanted to stop him destroying the universe makes it all a bit of a silly plan. Good bloody fun though. Overall the Dalek is just to get in the way and act as a real threat in the episode, otherwise he has no real sensible reason for being there.

None of these stories are perfect, but by treating the Daleks more as a plot point and using characterisation and excitement to drive the story forward, The Daleks have never really came across badly, but at the same time they haven’t ever proven themselves to be a menacing and truly scary race.

The new look to the Daleks has some down sides, but overall
 its wonderful.

Series 1 treats them very differently. They feature in two stories ‘Dalek’ and the two-parter ‘Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways’, and in both of these The Daleks are the main focus and this elevates them beyond just being ‘Daleks’ and becoming ‘The Best Who Monster/Enemy’. Only again in series 3 is this attempted – here however it proves fatal, luckily its set in New York so we can all blame our lack of enjoyment (if you didn’t that is) on the bad accents rather than poor Daleks and an overall terrible plot that represents (for me) series three’s ‘Doctors Daughter’ (the episode that is surprising for not being dropped).

It this treatment in ‘Dalek’ that makes it quite simply – Amazing. Sure there are problems, and one of those is directly in how the Dalek works and some plot errors that pop up from time to time, but I’ll get to that later.

Here we see exactly who and what the Daleks are/were, and this episode is the sole reason ‘Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways’ works so well – The Daleks are put forward as this invincible race, an unstoppable force that can’t be killed by simple weapons – making them for the oldest viewers, a terrifying villain.

To set all this up and launch this race in NuWho, Rob Shearman had a very big responsibility. One problem with complimenting him is that we know for a fact that RTD did some heavy editing and ordering big re-drafts numerous times. While we know this happens for many episodes, its a fact that with such a big episode no doubt RTD had very big input. Where and what I don’t know, but I do have some problems with the writing of this episode and from having listened to much of Rob’s mostly amazing work for Big Finish some things stand out as RTD inputs.

So I’ll dive straight into the biggest problem with this episode, and that's a character whose introduced for the sake of a plot RTD wanted for next week in ‘The Long Game’. That character is Adam Mitchell. For me he is the worst aspect of series one and one of the worst casting decisions in Who until Meera Syal takes Chris Chibnalls pile of piss that was his Silurian two-parter and takes a shit on it.

The whole flirting between him and Rose breaks the pace right away. Not only does it not fit timing for the episode, but it also causes bigger problems in that Bruno Langley who plays him can express about as many emotions as a damp carpet. He is just rubbish and fails entirely to put any exaggeration on the dialogue whatsoever.

Other problems with Adam? He is incredibly useless, I’d be fine with him, especially in him joining the TARDIS team if he used his computer genius skills in this episode to basically save the day at some point – either in a small way or just helping The Doctor. Unfortunately he does nothing, literally nothing. He just becomes someone Rose can converse with and is written so badly that in order to make things fit, Rob splits him from Rose as quick as possible, sticking her with the Dalek instead and fulfilling the actual plot than setting up RTD’s character point for the next episode.

When I said timing problems, I don’t just mean the sudden change from exciting things involving the Dalek to him and Rose near the start, but how in that same scene The Doctor seems to be tied up, have his top removed and tortured/analysed in another room. This split really doesn’t work as it’s made out to be live action, yet on screen its as if these two scenes are moving at very different paces and almost at different speeds.

That brings me onto my second problem with the episode, and again this also feels shoehorned in by RTDrayed, showing Van Statten his two hearts is just unnecessary and only acts to allow Rose to get to the Dalek in the mean time (and only because she isn’t with The Doctor when he talks to the Dalek – a better way of doing these events would be Rose going to see The Dalek as The Doctor is dragged out and touches the Dalek then). For me it makes no sense, Van Statten could be asking about the Dalek, but instead tortures the only alien who can tell him what he needs to know?

Jack was here.

Those are the only two big problems for me, and that's mainly because I see them as unnecessary and just for RTD to shove in his own plot points like setting up Adam and then showing The Doctor has two hearts, without serving the episode itself in anyway. Although as I said earlier, I have no idea who added what, what aspects came first or anything really about the production – but as I said from my understanding of the two writers I’ve interpreted this how I like, and anyway they are in the script and I’m really just reviewing the episode so back to that!

So Dalek sees a single Dalek trapped and damaged in an underground museum by Henry Van Statten. What follows is a great reel of moments to introduce not only the Dalek race into but also finally get down to exactly what happened in the Time War (or at least alluding to how events unfolded) and who was fighting in it.

The entire scene between The Doctor and the Dalek is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Not only does Chris play it amazingly – hitting every note and really putting forward the idea that he really is losing it, something that we’ve seen being built up throughout the series so far – but Nick Briggs who voices the Dalek really gets forward everything he needs to, the coldness of the Dalek but also those moments where it slightly goads The Doctor.

This all leads The Doctor to take an action that he has been building towards for most of the series, where as Tennants Doctor would seem scary just by picking up a gun in fear, and Smith’s seems scary in his sudden outbursts of anger, Ecclestein has been a very scary Doctor and in no way shown to be perfect and always caring. Rather than keep talking to the Dalek, things escalate and he falls into complete mania leading him to try and kill the Dalek. Except he doesn’t just try to ‘kill’ it, instead he tortures it, increasing the voltage given to it bit by bit as his rage built.

This episode deals with so many things, and it has to, RTD hasn’t just set Rob and himself the challenge of creating an episode which introduced the Dalek race, but also dealing with the Time War explanation, and his guilt and anger. I feel Ecclestein does this best, where as Tennant just sort of looks longfully and a bit less angry – even against Rassalon he isn’t all that angry. Smith in ‘Victory of the Daleks’ really pushes the anger a bit more, but still its not Ecclesteins rage as seen here – this is such an important part of Doctor Who that while RTD came up with I think he loses sight off as the series goes on. It almost becomes something that happened rather than something he went through.

Here its very much that he has done and been through something destructive and has deeply affected him. Once again Rose helps the Doctor in this episode in his need to deal with these emotions. Whereas up to now we’ve had Rose just being there to almost hold his hand when things are difficult, but here she actually stands up to him and tells him to look at how he is acting, and quite simply that he is becoming a Dalek himself. Firstly this is great – this is what makes Rose an amazing companion – and I will rant about how rubbish she becomes in series two when I’m reviewing series two and noticing how pathetic, whiny, and weak she becomes.

This brings me onto the most amazing thing in this episode. The contrast of the Dalek and The Doctor is simply amazing. Its a great idea to show to old and new fans exactly how deeply troubled this Doctor is in his emotions, and this will lead to the events in the next Dalek story this series. The Dalek, the most evil creature in the universe – but very similar to The Doctor in that he is the last one left (or so they think), damaged, and without a purpose.

This is exactly the same for The Doctor. One thing I would have liked to see was less Rose and Adam and more Doctor and Dalek stuff going on, as the contrast between them is a bit too subtle for me and the episode just has too much going on around it, leaving little time for this idea to breathe.

Rose was almost recast after staff realised Billie was too hot to handle.

The Dalek of course begins to take on emotions after absorbing Rose’s DNA in order to rejuvenate itself with her time energy. While this is happening, The Doctor is getting darker and darker, angrier and angrier. They contrast one another brilliantly, The Doctor gives away to hate in the same way a Dalek would. We never again see The Doctor’s character examined so completely as we do in this episode, and while ‘Amy’s Choice’ takes a fresh approach, its this episode which really succeeds in getting under his skin.

Now before I get onto the final showdown, I’ll tell you my other main problems with this episode. Firstly all the characters are very generic, and I mean that in that they are all reasonably thick. Firstly the torturer making a joke at the Dalek had the effect you’d imagine and he is quickly dispatched of. Now that's all fine, its suppose to be funny, however the guard then ignoring The Doctor’s advice on how to fight a Dalek and getting pretty fucking arrogant for a guy that's had to draft in scientists to help fight, and also since another team attacking from two sides just got annihilated. Van Statten is okay, just a bit selfish, but he could have shut up for a while, the whole ‘Don’t shoot it’ was fine at first but as he continues to shout it despite people dying it just becomes a bit silly and camp.

My other problems are with The Dalek. Firstly why does it start shooting up the room? To show off its weapons? It could have just shot the camera, rather than just shooting every random object including a fucking punch of cylinders right beside it. Does not make sense for a Dalek to act so pointless.

My second point is that I got annoyed at the electric scene, where he basically decides to kill off all the soldiers by electrocuting them. Now I can buy that actually he has an electric setting (his main gun is just a radiation blast), but they could have either made that clearer or made the men maybe realise he has made sure 1) Its made sure its not in the water, and 2) It doesn’t shoot them, but the sprinkler system. They could have used some sense.

This scene was a clever idea yes, but its slightly ruined because...
'Its got a fucking gun and can shoot you from down
therewithout having to go up the fucking stairs!'
Biggest plot hole of the episode.

Thirdly, and this brings us to the final stand, why the fuck...really...why the fuck did Davros (or the emperor) add a nice suicide function to a race of creatures which are suppose to just fight for itself? WHY! It makes no sense! Did they really think it was clever to say this is why they have the spheres on the sides? Because to be honest I prefer the Moff’s version in ‘Curse of Fatal Death’ and how the Master uses them.

I just didn’t buy it, but it was one way for it to kill itself – I’d have preferred it just exploding, just dying in the light (would have been good, also to know its so self aware it can kill itself just by an order would have been very strong). This is a minor point, but it still makes no sense what so ever.

The final showdown is the best bit of the episode, and unfortunately its not true for many Doctor Who episodes , so its a real achievement that all the threads get dealt with brilliantly here. I’ve already talked about the contrast between The Doctor and the Dalek, but its the relationship between Rose and the Dalek that really stands out here. She feels almost like a mother to the Dalek as she has created what it is now becoming and she is trying to teach it how to be human and look after it. Its a part of her now, and she has to take care of it.

She has to go so far in understanding that the Dalek has to die, this shows real maturity on her behalf and she herself acts in much the way The Doctor should act. The final order is given and everything is solved, The Doctor is alone again and still without any real purpose and still just as damaged – although we are seeing Rose really beginning to heal him at this point.

This episode is almost perfect but it just has too much going on that doesn't involved the Dalek, the war, or The Doctor. This really damages it and the character Adam just goes to ruin much of his scenes including his awful deliver of the final lines of the series - no sense of drama - nothing.

Jack was here.

9.5/10 - I want to give it a 9 just because I think there are some very definite problems, it is saved however by the fact that the concept really goes out there and gives the Dalek feelings rather than just relying on its villainy, this pushes the characterisation of all the characters in an amazing way.

This episode isn't any old Dalek episode, its one of the best Dalek plots you'll find in both old and new who, but it is also a great mini-resolution to the arc of the war and what has happened to The Doctor between his appearances (seemingly in his eighth incarnation.) as we get enough answers to really fuel our imagination and an on-going arc from here to the specials in 2009.

Get ready for next weeks review where I'll be telling you why 'The Long Game' is one of the best episodes of series one - but also why Adam is one of the worst characters since Adric.

Aliens of London/World War Three

Slitheen are well known throughout the universe as 'Big Baby Monsters!'
Least accordingy to the Hitchhikers Guide to Big Baby Monsters...
The direction of them by Boak single handedly forces the DW team to stay away from non-human looking monsters for quite some time - sadly - with only CGI ones taking there place.

‘Aliens of London/World War Three’ do not make up a bad story, its just slightly lacklustre in places and to be honest has more silly moments than scary.

But like ‘Rose’ RTD may not have made an amazing story but he has taken actions that others might have shied away from. On so many fan-forums you’ll here some people bleting for a return of monsters that ‘don’t look so human’ – yet those same people will make jokes directed at the Slitheen.

The Slitheen are not perfect, no, but they are original Doctor Who and aim very hard to scare the kids. In this respect and in fact in how RTD writes two-parters, he’ll learn a lot from Steven Moffat who frankly gets the two-parter idea right the best and also gets the idea of scaring the kids very well. This is why the Slitheen don’t fully work, there just not scary enough – the CGI moments aside, as here there movement is perfect and they look pretty fiersome – and lets be honest come across as a pretty shoddy villain.

I’m a Buffy fan so I fail to accept that its hard to make a good monster without CGI, or human characteristics, it just takes some real imagination and to be honest this is one area  where the Who designers are lacking in, yet at the same time it is up to the writers and Russell to come up with monsters that work in that environment and they’ve lacked in doing that as well.

The stomach should not be there - its stupid and pointless, espcially since it just stops.
This picture is further proof that Keith Boak is not a director but someone who sticks a camera and just shoots what happens in front of him with zero thought and intellignece.
Then again Michael Bay does alright for himself.
I know I made a Michael Bay joke - I'm sorry but all blogs must do it at least once - read the T&C's

This is another criticism I have on the episode, once again RTD gets all the character moments but he still seems to be working out how he plots his episodes, and I’ve mentioned in an earlier review – he really does not work that out until Series 2 and 3.

Euros Lyns in comparing Russells writing to Moffats described Russells as more bang bang with the plot flying along and new elements being thrown in while Moff’s are a little more intricate.

Unfortunatly this means that much of Russells writing relies on him throwing in new elements to keep things going, and in the end his conclusions are just another plot point rather than something that really pays off.

This has its ups and downs, and while I really appreciate using Mickey and pushing him into the lime-light of the hero as well as showing Rose is completely devoted to The Doctor now, but just having Mickey go on a website and type in what is frankly the single most generic password ever to take control of the UK’s missile system to blow up Number 10 was just poor plotting and poor writing. My number one gripe in any TV show is how they abuse computers and there abilities so much, (Spooks has always been the number one faulter here by making every Teenager able to crack an encryption like its what they all sit doing – and very much like its easy and requires no other programmes to be used) so solving things this way was for me a real annoyance.

However in building up to that point there are some excellent moments. Many coming in the first 20 minutes of ‘Aliens in London’.

One of the best moments of series 1 and this story is the Pig. One moment its laugh out loud then suddenly just sad. The idea of using the animal as a set-up works very well and really makes the Slitheen sound completely evil and horrible.

Part of me wishes it hadn’t been killed and survived as a little silly thing in the episodes and somehow saved the day - only to die then.

Then again I also want a good, fully plotted and no GIANT plot-hole story - so obviously I'm at odds to who this episode is aimed at.

RTD betrays this character by failing to give us an emotional back story into his childhood.
'Babe - Pig in Space'
Best Doctor Who enemy ever.

Another great moment is Rose finding out she’s been away for quite some time and it works very, very well.   Its a great idea from Russell and once again shows The Doctor as not being very perfect – its a scary and funny idea at the same time, yet at the same time allows some interesting dialogue that shows Rose has been away from a while rather than her returning after only a few minutes and it just not being all that interesting.

The arrival of the fake ship is pretty cool, especially in crashing into Big Ben and is also really well CGI’d.

The biggest plot hole in this episode is that everyones favourite space pig would be a much better fucking pilot than that!

Most of downing street is quite uninteresting, its not until The Doctor really arrives on scene that anything kicks off. Before then its just ‘oh look theres aliens under there! Ohhhhh’. Although for your information I actually really like the fart jokes – and while its tone is way off, the tone the series needs,  those downing street scenes would be so incredibly boring without them.

Onto the ‘Aliens of London’ cliffhanger – its actually very good, it really puts them all in mortal danger and at this early point in the show we really don’t know if they’ll survive adding some real intensity to it all. Having The Doctor and all the ‘experts’ in danger works really well as we sit knowing that the Slitheen have done some pretty clever trickery in this episode, and to be honest we don’t see this kind of idea again until the twist with the Pandorica in The Big Bang. This is mainly because after series 1 RTD becomes obsessed with quick moving and plot jumping stories, without much exposition or smart villains.

The conclusion of the cliffhanger is the single worst moment of series 1. Fact.

Its horrible – what so now the electric badge thing will electrocute not just one Slitheen its connected to but every single one across London!?

This firing into the second part is just rubbish. Its unfortunate because much of part 2 lifts the excitement levels so much. Lots of running, hiding and great characterisation with Rose willing to die to save the planet (although this is usual cheap trickery employed by many TV shows as she’d die anyways if it blew up!).

Unfortunatly – again – RTD pops his idiotic head above the ground of believability and smiles with a big grin as if to say ‘who cares if it doesn’t make sense – this is how I write, with zero intricacy and just shoving everything forwards for the conclusion!’

Annoyingly RTD thinks first of all – A missile defece system will:

1 – Have a simple password to access the navy’s firing systems.

2- Have missiles on ready, set to fire, and directly connected to the internet.

3 – THAT THE UK WILL HAVE NO DEFENCES AGAINST MISSILES, NOR A| SHUTDOWN/OVERRIDE FUNCTION.

Cash in your gold and receive your own missile system.
Courtesy of Cybus Industries.

A forth point not included in the missile system is this:

‘Everyone will just buy Harriet Jones – the single most annoying woman on the planet (she is good in Stolen Earth mind) – when she shouts ‘The Crisis is over!’ – right after a fucking missile blows up Number 10, where the planets entire defence is relying on (Did I mention how stupid the whole ‘send us the nuclear codes’ thing was? Why didn’t the UN just ask for co-ordinates and do it themselves, you know like the system is suppose to be set up to allow? Or why didn’t the US or someone say ‘Hey we have nukes, radar, scans and stuff – lets use them!...Hey, theres nothing up there!) 

Now If your a police man and a mad woman runs over and tells you how she just helped blow up Number 10 because the MP’s were all aliens – you’d firstly arrest her for being a fucking psycho – and then arrest The Doctor for being a hypocrite (‘Oh I hate guns, less there either a) Missiles b) Gunship guns to shoot down other missiles c) Other men, not me firing them, and d) theres a bunch of fucking timelords whose over-dramatic assault on time is sooooo much worse than the Daleks doing EXACTLY THE SAME THING ONLY WORDED DIFFERNELY)’

*RANT OVER

Theres not much else to say really. Harriet Jones is a bit annoying, but she serves a purpose. Rose is good in this episode, so is The Doctor.

The main and brilliant characterisation is that of Mickey Smith who saves the day – sure he doesn’t actually do much except thow some pickles and click a mouse – but according to the rules of RTD, doing what The Doctor tells you is characterisation.

Also - Keith Boak was rubbish again and my complaints on the Slitheen would be lighter I feel if he'd bother to direct them rather than just stick them in a room with a camera and tell them to move around.

 Aliens of London - 7/10

World War Three - 4/10

Unfortunate that the second part was a real let down and just created a big plot hole anywhere it looked. Though as a two-parter it sets things up, unfortunatly it fails to really get the tone the series requires and falls into a bit of a pantomime.

Overall I'd stick with 7/10, even though I gave the second part such a bad score overall the story is not 'terrible' just disappointing to be honest. Theres fun to be had, Mickey gets some good characterisation which while very forced on by RTD to the characters and plot, it works and gets him involved in an enjoyable way.

Oh and Bad Wolf pops up - for me the way it does makes no sense. More of that after 'Parting of the Ways' though.