Endings Are Such Sweet Repetition When "The Doctor Falls"

The Good: Decent performances, Ties the season together well, Good effects, Good character moments
The Bad: Repetitive plot and character elements from other Steven Moffat works
The Basics: "The Doctor Falls" puts Bill in mortal peril and The Doctor, Missy, Nardole and The Master in a situation that might spell all their doom.


Steven Moffat's run as showrunner of Doctor Who has been an erratic one. While a lot of fangirls came to love him, I was not a fan of Matt Smith's tenure as The Doctor. I was actually super-excited by Peter Capaldi being cast as The Doctor, but his three season run as The Doctor, which was separated by (essentially) a year off while the production team tried to figure out its next direction, was marred by pretty terrible writing. So, there was something of a "fuck you" quality to Steven Moffat's final season as showrunner as the writing suddenly got good and the production team finally figured out how to write and develop Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor. Moffat's penultimate episode writing and executive producing Doctor Who with Peter Capaldi as The Doctor is "The Doctor Falls."

"The Doctor Falls" follows immediately upon "World Enough And Time" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss without some references to where the prior episode went. After all, "World Enough And Time" put The Doctor, Nardole, and Bill on a massive alien ship near a black hole and when Bill became separated from the others in a section of the ship moving at a radically-different rate of time, she falls prey to one of The Doctor's worst enemies.

"The Doctor Falls" opens with a tremendous burden upon it. "World Enough And Time" returned The Master, the John Simm version of The Master, to the Doctor Who narrative and because he came in so late in the prior episode, there was no burden in that episode to explain how The Master appeared. Missy has perfectly good reason not to recall being on the space ship in the form of The Master, as she has had more than a thousand years of being isolated wherein she has been able to dwell on many other things. But The Master in "World Enough And Time" defined himself as being the "former prime minister." How The Master ended up in deep space after being killed in "Last Of The Time Lords" (reviewed here!), but before being resurrected for "The End Of Time" (reviewed here!) bears an explanation and as "The Doctor Falls" opens, Doctor Who is stuck trying to make a satisfactory explanation for how that could occur. "The Doctor Falls" manages to remind viewers that The Master was not previously killed; he just went off with the Time Masters and his end was left vague before he popped back up as Missy. "The Doctor Falls" creates a new, weird, problem when it puts into play yet another TARDIS. The Master, after returning to Gallifrey, got his own TARDIS. So, despite there being a TARDIS graveyard in a prior episode, the implication that The Doctor's TARDIS was the last one, by the end of "The Doctor Falls" there are three in play in our universe - The Doctor's, Ashildr's, and The Master's. More satisfying than the explanation of how The Master got away from Gallifrey, "The Doctor Falls" closes the loop on The Master/Missy and the Cybermen. When Missy was first introduced, she was using Cyberman technology in her bid to take over Earth using the dead; how she got that technology makes perfect sense given where "The Doctor Falls" leaves The Master.

Picking up on level 507 of the ship, the humans on the colony ship are living in a holographic simulation of farmland on the solar farm level. They are using proto-Cybermen who have made it up to that level as scarecrows to keep the children from wandering. Back on the bottom level, The Doctor is confronted by The Master and Missy, having just learned that Bill has been transformed into a Cyberman. When The Master and Missy attack The Doctor, he has just enough time to reprogram the Cyberman computer to recognize Time Lords as eligible for Conversion. As the Cybermen converge upon the heroes, Nardole manages to get all of them away with Bill's help.

Reaching Level 507, Bill wakes up in a barn where she is alarmed by how the colonist children are terrified of her. She looks in the mirror and is confused by why she appears to be a Cyberman. Together, Bill, The Doctor, Nardole, Missy and The Master prepare Level 507 for a Cyberman siege as they skyrocket up to the level. But, as the Cybermen invade, The Master and Missy betray The Doctor and they have an escape plan on The Master's damaged TARDIS on the lower levels of the ship. In stopping the Cybermen, Nardole reprograms the holographic fields as weapons and evacuates the humans to a higher level. That leaves The Doctor and Bill to thwart the invading Cybermen, but The Doctor is wounded and his life hangs in the balance with no way out.

"The Doctor Falls" is quite good, especially as it winnows The Doctor's allies down. Ironically, as the episode began, I found myself rooting for Nardole and being surprisingly impressed over how vital the character managed to become. Matt Lucas rose to the occasion of being a full-fledged Companion and it was nice to see him become something more than a punchline.

The irksome aspect of "The Doctor Falls" is that Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor suddenly becomes indispensable and incredible . . . right around his apparent end. The other disappointing aspect of "The Doctor Falls" is Steven Moffat's repetition for his own ideas. The moment Bill appears on Level 507 looking like Bill, it is hard for the seasoned Doctor Who viewer not to see exactly what is going on. Steven Moffat used the exact same reversal with (proto) Clara when she was introduced in the "Asylum Of The Daleks." It is tremendously disappointing and obvious to see Bill given the exact same arc with her new Cyberman body and The Master and Missy doing their usual betrayals of The Doctor.

In a similar way, Moffat wusses out on resolving Bill's character arc. Moffat seems terrified about giving a character a bad end . . . so he again recycles his own material. Fans who saw how Clara was ultimately written out in "Hell Bent" (reviewed here!) will instantly feel a sinking feeling the moment Bill sees her love interest from "The Pilot" (reviewed here!). Moffat's penchant for reusing material is disappointing in "The Doctor Falls."

That said, Pearl Mackie does incredibly well as Bill. Mackie might be working off a script that is familiar to Doctor Who fans, but she performs the material in a way that suddenly makes those who refused to invest in her character (Mackie was spoiled early on in the season as being a one-season Companion) completely care about her. Bill believed in The Doctor and she got screwed; her character was barely around long enough to learn about Regeneration - The Doctor never satisfactorily explained to her The Master. Bill's sense of hope is heartbreaking and Mackie lands the moment of epiphany.

Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor is everything fans have wanted from him in "The Doctor Falls." Viewers are likely to wonder where the hell Moffat's talent was for giving Capaldi's character a unique voice up until this point.

All that said, "The Doctor Falls" is a powerful set-up for Peter Capaldi's final bow as The Doctor . . . and it is enough for fans to hope that Capaldi's leaving with the arrival of a new Executive Producer is a fake-out, much like the BBC did when announcing Jenna Coleman's departure an entire season in advance of her actual leaving.

For other Doctor Who season finales, please check out my reviews of:
"The Parting Of The Ways"
"The End Of Time, Part 2"
"The Big Bang"

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

8.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and season reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Too Soon: David Tennant's Doctor Who Falls Prey To "The End Of Time, Part Two!"

The Good: Decent backstory for The Master, Good sense of morality, Decent performances
The Bad: Some wonky science, Moments where the Gallifreyans exhibit vast superhuman powers.
The Basics: "The End Of Time Part Two" concluded David Tennant's time as The Doctor with a story that oscillates between epic and ridiculous!


The more television I watch and review, the more I find that it is a true rarity for two-part episodes to be truly balanced. More often than not, the first part - which sets up a great conflict - is noticeably superior to the second part. There are a few exceptions to that rule, but the payoff to the well-established conflict is seldom as good as the set-up. As the tenure of David Tennant as The Doctor came to a close, Russell T. Davis prepared for the Doctor's departure with the two-part episode "The End Of Time." "The End Of Time, Part 1" (reviewed here!) was an erratic set-up episode, which made it very easy for "The End Of Time, Part 2" to become one of the rare exceptions where the second part was superior to the first.

"The End Of Time, Part 1" put a ridiculous number of elements into play: The Master was resurrected with super powers, aliens were working on Earth to salvage a mass medical treatment device, Wilfred Mott was seeing a mysterious woman, and the Ood had foreseen both The Doctor's death and the end of all time. By the end of the first part, all of the biggest conceits had been played as the Time Lords were revealed and the populace of Earth was transformed into The Master.

Opening on Gallifrey, its crystal sphere shattered, on the last day of the Time Lords, the council of Time Lords convenes and fears that The Doctor will end the Time War with the mutual destruction of the Daleks and Time Lords. They determine that The Doctor is on Earth and on Earth, The Doctor is a captive of The Master. But when Wilfred gets a call from Donna, The Master is instantly suspicious; because everyone in the world has been transformed into an incarnation of The Master, he knows there should be no one who would be calling Mott. The Master sends some of his duplicates to confront Donna and when she starts to recall her time with The Doctor, Donna releases a burst of energy that incapacitates her would-be assailants. Aided by the aliens working on Earth and Wilfred, The Doctor and the non-Masters manage to escape to the aliens' ship in orbit.

To find The Master, the Time Lords engineer The Master's madness and send a white point star (a Gallifreyen diamond) to Earth to act as a homing beacon in time and space to him to try to break through the time lock in which they are trapped. When The Master activates the white point star, the charismatic leader of the Time Lords rallies Gallifrey to save the Time Lords. The Doctor, having repaired the alien ship, makes an attack run on The Master's headquarters. The Master attempts to shoot down The Doctor's ship while the Time Lords create a portal into his headquarters. The ensuing conflict puts The Doctor literally in the middle of The Master and the President of the Time Lords with the fate of Earth, Gallifrey and time itself in the balance!

"The End Of Time, Part 2" is notable for fleshing out the backstory of The Master remarkably well. The Master's insanity (at least in Russell T. Davies's tenure) came from his lifelong headache generated by hearing a beating of drums within his head. The source and meaning of that beating is made explicit in "The End Of Time, Part 2" and the whole bootstrap paradox of it is surprisingly well-executed. John Simm plays the craziness and the temporal technobabble well.

Wilfred Mott's character is further deepened in "The End Of Time, Part 2," which makes it all the more tragic how he was not used sufficiently before this point. Mott's history as a soldier is detailed and, on the advice of the mysterious woman, he takes up arms. Mott frames the predicament Earth is in as an "us vs. them" scenario where the life of the Master might have to be sacrificed in order to save the more than six billion people he has transformed. It is a rare thing in Doctor Who for The Doctor to be faced with an opposing philosophical perspective that he is forced to consider and holds weight with his own. Mott makes for an instantly compelling character for having that level of gravitas.

The Doctor is presented in "The End Of Time Part 2" as predictably and wonderfully moral. Forced to take a gun by Mott, the standoff that dominates the critical scene of "The End Of Time, Part 2" is very tense, but holds true to The Doctor's moral core. In that way, there is a refreshing quality to "The End Of Time Part 2;" the purpose of the episode is to create a big ending for The Doctor, but the character's appeal is not mortgaged to make that moment.

David Tennant is great as The Doctor in "The End Of Time, Part 2." While there are moments with Timothy Dalton (The President) and John Simm (The Master) that threaten to overshadow on the performance front, Tennant and Bernard Cribbins (Mott) show the most range in the episode. The quiet scenes where The Doctor and Mott simply talk with one another give Tennant and Cribbins the chance to create genuine emotional depth on screen and they are impressive. The two play off one another well and both performers play sadness amazingly well. Tennant's last big scene with Cribbins allows Tennant to channel Christopher Eccleston's final moments as The Doctor and the tie-in is subtle but played out perfectly by Tennant's performance.

"The End Of Time, Part 2" is quite a bit better than the first part, but it is far from flawless. The science of the episode is wonky at best. While I can live with the paradox that created The Master's insanity, the appearance of Gallifrey in orbit around Earth would have absolutely decimated Earth. Similarly, The Master's electrical hands should have made it impossible for The Doctor, Wilfred and the aliens to escape (after all, why wouldn't all of his duplicates be superpowered the way he is?!) and The President's magical gauntlet is not satisfactorily explained in-episode.

Despite that, the montage sequence caps off "The End Of Time, Part 2" is a lot of fun and acts as a wonderful reprise to the way "Journey's End" (reviewed here!) gave each of The Doctor's allies a chance to say good-bye. The climax of the episode is, as one might expect, emotional and David Tennant makes saying goodbye to his incarnation of The Doctor a truly sweet sorrow.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other big finales, be sure to visit my reviews of:
"What You Leave Behind" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Gethsemane" - The X-Files
"Episode 29" - Twin Peaks

7/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Come The End Of The Universe, Doctor Who Remains Ethical Through His "Journey's End!"

The Good: Performances, Donna Noble's character arc, Plot progression/resolution
The Bad: Martha Jones is woefully underused
The Basics: "Journey's End" manages to be fun, adventurous Doctor Who as it ties up the franchise Russell T. Davies had created.


I am not an expert on Doctor Who. In fact, of the pre-2005 Doctor Who, I have seen almost none. As a result, I am not exactly sure how long the conceit for the series had been in place about the number of times The Doctor can regenerate, but by the end of "Journey's End" and "The Day Of The Doctor," that conceit had pretty well been violated beyond any sensible continuity. After all, as "Journey's End" begins, The Doctor is regenerating and, with the retcon of The War Doctor (however that is justified by fans to be canon), by an objective count, marks the first appearance of the Twelfth Doctor! But, rather than quibble about such things, let's look at the fourth season finale of Doctor Who: "Journey's End."

"Journey's End" picks up in the seconds following "The Stolen Earth" (reviewed here!) and there is little point to discussing the episode without referencing the events of the prior episode. Indeed, it is pretty much impossible, given that this is the second part of a two-part episode and the first part worked very hard to bring back almost everyone significant from Russell T. Davies's tenure on Doctor Who. "Journey's End" brings back the two stragglers missing from the first part and completes the writer's love letter to Doctor Who in a way that is not only enjoyable for fans, but is a pretty solidly enjoyable hour of television!

Opening with The Doctor, Rose, Donna, and Harkness in The TARDIS after The Doctor was shot by a Dalek, The Doctor regenerates. Much to the chagrin of those present, he retains his present (David Tennant) form and channels some of his regeneration energy into his preserved hand, which is on the TARDIS bridge. On Earth, Sarah Jane is rescued by Micky and Rose's mother, while the Torchwood team is trapped in their building in order to keep the Dalek's out with a temporal lock. The Daleks abduct the TARDIS and Martha Jones travels to Germany with a key that will activate the world's nuclear arsenal and destroy the Earth.

When The Doctor, Rose, and Harkness disembark on the Crucible, Donna Noble remains on the TARDIS when the Dalek's send it to the heart of the Crucible to be destroyed. Before the TARDIS can be destroyed, though, Donna Noble regenerates The Doctor from his amputated hand and saves the ship. The new Doctor is human and has a connection to Donna. The Dalek's attempt to kill Harkness and Martha prepares to activate Earth's self-destruct mechanism, while The Doctor and Rose are brought before Davros and Dalek Caan. Davros and Caan have brought the stolen worlds together to create a reality bomb and The Doctor and his allies must thwart them before Martha destroys the world!

"Journey's End" is a packed little episode that allows fans of Doctor Who to (metaphorically) have their cake and eat it, too. The duplicate Doctor provides a satisfying resolution for Rose Tyler's arc and, in the process, makes Donna Noble into one of the most important Doctor Who characters ever! At long last, Donna Noble's character becomes remarkable and the way she is made special is a wonderful character twist that plays out brilliantly.

The flirting between The Doctor and Rose Tyler is a welcome reward for those who sat through the heartbreak of "The Parting Of The Ways" (reviewed here!) and "Doomsday" (reviewed here!). David Tennant and Billie Piper fall into perfect rhythm and chemistry as if they had never stopped working with one another and were truly into one another. Their reunion and their time together on screen for the bulk of "Journey's End" is a true treat to watch.

But flirting is nowhere near the peak of David Tennant's performance abilities in "Journey's End." Playing the role of the familiar Doctor and the new, human, Doctor, allows Tennant to express more range. The new Doctor has a great comedic introduction, which allows Tennant and Catherine Tate to play to their well-honed (from other projects) comedic banter. Tennant differentiates his human Doctor with a slightly agape mouth and exposition and epiphanies that come slower than normal, which helps to make for a new-feeling character.

At the other end, Catherine Tate has to play Donna as a Timelord and her comedic patter is an asset. Tate stretches her range by delivering technobabble exposition brilliantly.

As "Journey's End" progresses, it starts to eek toward the ridiculous as the allied of The Doctor move into check with the Daleks by producing not just one, but two, apocalyptic devices that can thwart their plans. Fortunately, "Journey's End" quickly redirects from the plot conceit to the intense character dilemma of the episode. The Doctor abhors violence, but to save existence itself, he is in position to authorize the destruction of Earth or the Crucible. The retrospective of (not even all!) the people who have died in the service of The Doctor is horrifying and recalling it has an effect on The Doctor. The Doctor's sense of compassion has often defined his character and in "Journey's End," that compassion is challenged. The moment is not belabored, but it helps to keep the show feeling very Doctor Who. And, its being revisited at the climax of the action helps to keep the character pure and the episode focused.

Outside a single special effect - Donna getting blasted - "Journey's End" has wonderful special effects. The restoration sequence might have incredibly wonky science, but it is well-rendered. Similarly, the thwarting of the Daleks is presented somewhat ridiculously, even though it is fun to watch.

"Journey's End" has a strong sense of resolution to it and the disgust The Doctor feels for his counterpart is a clever twist to the episode. "Journey's End" might underuse Martha Jones, but it packs a lot into the episode and is self-referential to Doctor Who while still managing to be entertaining and engaging for more casual viewers!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other sweeping season finales, please check out my reviews of:
"Call To Arms" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"A Cold Day In Hell's Kitchen" - Daredevil
"Ascension" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

8.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Proper Return Of Rose Tyler Signals The End Of The Franchise With "The Stolen Earth!"

The Good: Fun, Good plot set-up
The Bad: No genuine character development, Light on notable performances, Plot-heavy
The Basics: "The Stolen Earth" works great in conjunction with its second part, but on its own it is exceptionally cumbersome, self-referential television.


When it comes to season finales, there are few shows that truly know how to lead into the end of a season like Doctor Who. The best serialized shows do a decent job of building to a season's end, but in episodic television or semi-serialized shows like Doctor Who, it can be a bit tougher. Throughout the fourth season of Doctor Who, Rose Tyler had been popping up in the background, for viewers who knew where to look at just the right time. But at the climax of "Turn Left" (reviewed here!), an episode that outright featured Rose Tyler, there was an urgency that came with the return of Bad Wolf, which led into the first moments of "The Stolen Earth."

"The Stolen Earth" is the payoff to hints and clues dropped throughout the fourth season and the first of two parts of a story that, essentially, is closing the book on the franchise Russell T. Davies had created with the modern Doctor Who and its various spin-off projects (Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and all of the projects that were pitched but failed to be produced). As Davies said his first of two good-bye's to Doctor Who, fans were rewarded for paying close attention early in the season.

The Doctor and Donna Noble arrive on Earth, on a Saturday, where The Doctor is relieved to find everything appears all right. Nervous about Donna's encounter with Rose and the appearance of Bad Wolf everywhere on their last adventure, The Doctor returns with Donna to the Tardis and, moments later, the Earth disappears entirely. Far across the universe, Earth is intact and at U.N.I.T. Headquarters in New York, Martha Jones awakens to discover the sky has changed. Torchwood, Sarah Jane, and Wilfred all discover that they are somewhere else entirely - based upon the sheer number of planets in the sky and the nebula around them. Rose appears on Earth with a massive weapon and declares that the trouble has just begun.

Earth's troubles quickly materialize in the form of an armada of Daleks. While U.N.I.T. and the ultra-secret Project Indigo attempt to fight the Daleks attacking Earth, The Doctor and Donna arrive at the Shadow Proclamation. There, they discover that 27 planets (including the Lost Moon Of Poosh) have been teleported out of time and space to create a world engine of some sort. On Earth, Martha Jones activates Project Indigo and disappears, leaving Jack Harkness to declare her dead. The abductors of the many planets are soon revealed to be Dalek Caan and Davros, The Doctor's ancient enemy and the creator of the Daleks! The Doctor and Donna follow a trail to discover Earth and the other missing planets in the Medusa Cascade, while Harriet Jones contacts The Doctor's various allies and attempts to assemble them into a force that can contact The Doctor and thwart the Daleks!

"The Stolen Earth" is the payoff to a lot of dangling threads in the Doctor Who expanded universe, writing out the spin-offs and finally presenting The Shadow Proclamation on-screen (before this, it just sounded like an interstellar agreement that kept various planets in order). The joy of seeing the various elements of Doctor Who and its spin-offs together on-screen is fun. The idea that Harriet Jones might be Earth's savior with her subwave network is a nice way to reward the first season's character who was sadly dismissed in the beginning of the second season. That, essentially, her heroic end comes in the attempt to make an interstellar cell phone call is wickedly ironic.

The episode, however, is predicated on a lot of truly wonky science. While the episode does a decent job of paying lip service to science by having Torchwood recognize that there is a force field keeping in Earth's heat and air, the very idea of The Darkness is clever only if one turns off their brain. In addition to the Judoon's language not being translated, despite them and The Doctor being proximate to the TARDIS, in order for Rose Tyler to know about the threat in the alternate universe - in the form of The Darkness - the stars going out would have had to have been extinguished for millennia. How the boosted cell phone signal reaches the TARDIS when Martha's phone does not is not made truly clear - after all, mystical cell phone, how does it fail?! And while Donna's notion of the disappearing bees is an interesting one, following a pollen trail across the universe seems pretty wonky.

"The Stolen Earth" spends almost forty minutes establishing its premise, as opposed to actually doing anything. It is fun and it is a lot of plot set-up; it is not until Rose Tyler longingly looks at a screen with The Doctor on it and realizes that he cannot see or hear her that viewers get even a moment of depth from any of the franchise's significant, enduring, characters. That is not to say that Harriet Jones squaring off with the Daleks is not good - actress Penelope Wilton sheds the cheap punchline of her character for a moment with genuine gravitas - but she is no Captain Jack Harkness! Objectively viewed, "The Stolen Earth" is like a fanfic writer's wet dream long before it becomes its own significant entity.

So, when Rose realizes The Doctor cannot see her and The Doctor laments that his team includes everyone but Rose, "The Stolen Earth" finally transitions into something significant. The Doctor's longing for Rose is one of the few, genuine, on-screen hints that The Doctor might reciprocate Rose's love for him.

Unfortunately, that deep character-driven moment with the episode's acting peak, is interrupted by the revelation of Davros. The resulting scene is more exposition and, based on Sarah Jane's reaction, it is a call-back to events from the classic-Doctor Who. Davros was, apparently, killed in the last great Time War, but rescued by Dalek Caan and the emotional resonance of his return cannot be realized by those who are only fans of the new (2005 on) Doctor Who. In other words, in creating his good-bye to his incarnation of Doctor Who and its expanded universe, Russell T. Davies is forced to rely on a big emotional moment for The Doctor that those new fans will not, inherently, appreciate.

That said, "The Stolen Earth" features one of the most wonderful and heart-breaking moments for fans of Doctor Who as Rose and The Doctor are (almost) reunited. The two running toward one another is sweet and gets fans' hearts racing, but the moment succumbs to yet another big plot events.

"The Stolen Earth" is, very much, a set-up episode. It is a fun episode. But objectively viewed, on its own, it is cumbersome, often dull, and exposition-heavy. It is the hype for the season finale; there are two decent moments of performance, two moments where characters shine and emote . . . and the rest is special effects, plot exposition, and a bunch of people getting excited about meeting one another. I don't recall disliking the episode any time I watched it, but the truth is, I've always immediately viewed "Journey's End" after watching "The Stolen Earth." Viewer together, the two-parter is something special; but "The Stolen Earth," on its own, viewed for just what is in the episode, is particularly unremarkable, insular, and self-referential in a way that fails to be even entertaining for the bulk of the episode.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other multi-part season finales, please visit my reviews of:
"Becoming" - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
"The Dogs Of War" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Absolution" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

4/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Sliding Doors For Doctor Who Comes When Donna Noble Fails To "Turn Left!"

The Good: Catherine Tate's performance, Plot, Character twists
The Bad: Minutiae
The Basics: Despite a technical issue or two, the Doctor Who episode "Turn Left" is so close to perfect!


There are some concepts in modern science fiction that have become new standards, such that virtually every new work feels the need to try their hand at that type of episode. For a long time, it was alternate universe episodes, based largely on the massive success of Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" (reviewed here!). Since the film Sliding Doors was released, many science fiction works have tried an episode that illustrates how a single decision can cause a major divergence in the storyline and/or character arcs. Hell, even Frasier got in on the action with the episode "Sliding Frasier!" In Doctor Who, the episode that uses the Sliding Doors conceit is "Turn Left" and it is a shockingly good use of the conceit and a decent hour of television in its own right!

"Turn Left" is the episode that properly returns Rose Tyler to the Doctor Who narrative. Tyler has appeared in background flashes an allusions throughout the fourth season of Doctor Who and in "Turn Left," she returns to the forefront of the narrative, pairing with Donna Noble, to reveal what the cameos before have been about. In some ways, "Turn Left" works better without seeing "Doomsday" (reviewed here!), which left Tyler trapped permanently in an alternate universe (her ability to transport across the universal divide without unleashing all the Daleks and Cybermen is not addressed in the episode). However, because the episode revisits the events of "The Runaway Bride" (reviewed here!), "Smith And Jones" (reviewed here!), "Voyage Of The Damned" (reviewed here!), "Partners In Crime" (reviewed here!) and "The Poison Sky" (reviewed here!), it helps for viewers to have some familiarity with those past episodes to get the most out of "Turn Left."

Opening with The Doctor and Donna on a distant planet, the pair gets separated and Donna meets a fortune teller. The fortune teller gets Donna to realize that six months prior to her taking the temp job at H.C. Clements, she made a distinct choice that put her on a course to meeting The Doctor. Donna is infected with a parasite and convinced to re-choose and rewrite her timeline by turning right at a key moment and taking a different job. When the Racnoss attack London, Donna is not there to convince The Doctor to let up and he dies when UNIT attacks their ship. On the day that Donna is sacked from her job, Royal Hope Hospital disappears from Earth and when it is returned, there is only one survivor (not Martha Jones).

When Rose Tyler appears again, she continues to look over Donna's shoulder at the parasite she perceives there. Tyler advises Noble to get out of London and mentions the raffle ticket that Noble's mother found in her box from her job. The raffle ticket pays off and the next Christmas, the Noble family is on holiday when the space Titanic crashes into London. With London destroyed, the Noble family becomes refugees and is forced to move to Leeds where they have to share a flat with multiple families. Before the U.S. can bail out the U.K., sixty million people there are killed when they are transformed by the Adipose. When the Torchwood team is sacrificed stopping the Sontarans during the ATMOS incident, Rose Tyler appears to tell Donna Noble that she must come with her and that when she does, she will die. The UK deports all immigrants to labor camps and, as the world falls down around Donna, she finally sees evidence of Rose Tyler's "oncoming darkness." When that happens, Donna chooses to join Rose Tyler and UNIT to try to save the multiverse by returning to the key moment and making the right choice.

"Turn Left" works very hard to prepare viewers for the big goodbye episode that Russell T. Davies has planned over the course of the next two episodes. The references to all of the Doctor's allies, Companions, and organizations helps mentally soften the viewer up for all of them interacting in the subsequent two-parter. Fortunately, the episode is more than that.

In many ways, "Turn Left" softens the viewer up for the idea of how important Donna Noble is in the long-term arc of Doctor Who. The character was frequently treated as a throwaway character who was brash, loud, and obnoxious, but she became integral to several key moments in The Doctor's narrative. Equally important, she is set-up in "Turn Left" as someone who is special and has a destiny to play in the fate of the galaxy.

"Turn Left" is a good character study that smartly explores so many impressive consequences of recent actions in the Doctor Who universe. Harold Saxon never comes to power because The Doctor and Martha Jones never go to the end of time. The rest of the Earth-bound adventures of Doctor Who from the prior two seasons are explored for how those who knew The Doctor could have intervened to save the world in his absence. For an episode that is so intricately put together, it is shocking that the hidden adversary of the episode is so poorly constructed. The Darkness is a destructive force that is wiping out stars; for that to be an imminent threat, it would have been destroying star systems for centuries, which would hardly be a new thing at all.

Catherine Tate earns her paycheck for "Turn Left." The strength of her performance when Donna Noble sees the parasite is amazing. Tate dominates the episode and she creates a tearjerker performance that is exceptional. While some episodes, like the very popular "Blink" (reviewed here!) feature The Doctor as a peripheral character and are built around the Monster Of The Week, "Turn Left" minimizes The Doctor and elevates his Companion. Donna Noble manages to develop from self-centered and loud to passionate and involved without The Doctor and Tate makes the viewer care about her and her journey, more than they thrill to the return of Billie Piper's Rose Tyler.

While some complain about the effect of the parasite, "Turn Left" is not about the Creature Of The Week; it is about the Doctor Who companion Donna Noble. The creature does not have to be an amazing special effect; it has to horrify Donna Noble and Catherine Tate absolutely portrays the character's shock and horror at the creature on her back.

"Turn Left" could be a cheap gimmick episode, but it manages to use its premise exceptionally well and become a strong, positive work of its own.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

9.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Doctor Who Dud: "Midnight." (My 3000th Movie/Television Review!)

The Good: Lesley Sharp's performance
The Bad: Dull plot, No character development
The Basics: The gimmick of "Midnight" is not to enough to sell the viewer on the episode's execution.


There are very few long-running shows that do not have a few throwaway episodes. Doctor Who - despite the generally high quality of the show during Russell T. Davies's tenure is no exception. Arguably his last real failure for an episode before leaving the franchise was the standalone episode "Midnight." "Midnight" seems to try take a children's game - the repeating game - and make it the framework for a terrifying alien entity.

Sadly, the episode fizzles.

Donna Noble is relaxing at a spa on the planet Midnight when The Doctor calls and tries to convince her to go on a tour of the diamond planet. Donna refuses and The Doctor treks out on his own with an ATV full of strangers to see the Sapphire Waterfalls of Midnight. The Hostess puts on an obtrusive entertainment package, which The Doctor is annoyed by, so he uses his sonic screwdriver to turn it off. This leads the tourists to bond for a couple hundred of kliks. Professor Hobbes teaches the passengers that Midnight is, and always has been, devoid of life.

When the transport breaks down in an area that is off the scheduled route, The Doctor enters the cockpit and one of the pilots sees what he believes to be a shadow out on the blindingly bright surface. Suddenly, there comes a knocking on the hull of the transport and moments later, the driver's cabin is obliterated. Inside the transport, the crewmembers turn on Sky Silvestry when she appears possessed and starts repeating things that others say. When the entity forcing her to repeat lines starts to anticipate what people will say, The Doctor becomes horrified. When the paranoia of the passengers runs high and they want to murder the alien entity, The Doctor tries to defend the new form of life . . . even if it might cost him his life.

"Midnight" fits into the larger narrative of the fourth season through a very minor scene in which one of the passengers, Dee Dee, references the lost moon of Poosh. This continues the quiet motif of missing planets and strange phenomenon that has been threaded through the fourth season. Rose Tyler is kept alive in the season through a reference when The Doctor tries to relate to another passenger, who has been left by her love for another galaxy. She also flashes in a "blink and you miss it" cameo on a screen over The Doctor's shoulder.

All "Midnight" truly has going for it are the performances. While most of the actors are not given much to do, Lesley Sharp's Sky Silvestry does the heavy lifting of the episode. Sharp has an amazing physical presence when Silvestry is taken over and she has to act animalistic. Between speaking in unison with other performers (and thus bearing a ton of lines for the episode) and changing her body language entirely, Sharp does an impressive job of creating two distinctly different characters (or a character and an entity).

"Midnight" tries to establish a mood of paranoia and explore that. It's not terribly complex or insightful, which makes it tougher to go back to watch more than once. It is the low point of the fourth season of Doctor Who.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

1.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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U.N.I.T. Becomes Interchangeable With S.H.I.E.L.D. In "The Poison Sky!"

The Good: Plot moves along well, Adequate performances
The Bad: Light on character development, Fairly predictable
The Basics: "The Poison Sky" resolves the action of "The Sontaran Stratagem" adequately, but not exceptionally.


In television and movies, sequels and second parts often have a difficult time living up to the potential alluded to in the first part. Even so, some make a decent showing of it and "The Poison Sky" fares better than most second parts. "The Poison Sky" picks up immediately after "The Sontaran Stratagem" (reviewed here!). As a result, it is impossible to discuss "The Poison Sky" without revealing some of where "The Sontaran Stratagem" left the major characters and plotlines.

For "The Poison Sky," U.N.I.T. reveals a potential previously only alluded to in Doctor Who (at least the new episodes of Doctor Who; I've no idea how the organization is represented in "classic" Doctor Who). They have a helicarrier, much like S.H.I.E.L.D. from Marvel Comics or The Avengers (reviewed here!). "The Poison Sky" opens at an appropriately bleak moment for the protagonists: the ATMOS devices are poisoning the Earth, Martha has been replaced by a replicant, Luke Rattigan had betrayed the planet to Sontarans, and Wilfred was trapped in his car, choking to death. "The Poison Sky," predictably, resolves everything set up in "The Sontaran Stratagem" and moves the relationships The Doctor has with Donna Noble and Martha Jones forward.

Sylvia Noble manages to rescue Wilfred and she objects to Donna going off with The Doctor, but Donna leaves anyway. The Doctor uses the opportunity to give Donna a key to the TARDIS and as the world chokes on fumes created by the ATMOS devices in 400,000,000 of the world's cars, Donna is secreted away to the TARDIS. Unfortunately, The Doctor tips his hand to the Martha Jones Replicant, who has the Sontarans teleport the TARDIS up to the Sontaran mothership. U.N.I.T.'s commander, Colonel Mace, orders Earth's nuclear arsenal to train on on the Sontaran ship as The Doctor tries to signal Donna Noble. The Martha Jones Replicant prevents the nuclear arsenal from launching.

As the Sontarans attack the ATMOS factory, the Doctor realizes they are interested in something inside the factory and are working to protect it. As Rattigan wigs out on his would-be disciples, he flees back to the Sontaran ship where he discovers the aliens have used him. Mace marshals U.N.I.T.'s forces to attack the Sontaran positions in the factory while Donna Noble escapes the TARDIS to get the teleporter back online. When The Doctor rescues Martha, they discover what the Sontarans are actually after on Earth and the Doctor and his two Companions work together to stop them.

"The Poison Sky" firmly establishes The Doctor's loathing of guns in a way that prior episodes have not and the episode is one of the prime reasons "In The Forest Of The Night" (reviewed here!) does not work several seasons later (honestly, if Earth-saving entities would make the world a forest to save humanity from solar flares, why wouldn't they save them from the Sontarans?!"

The science of "The Poison Sky" is a bit wonky. Carbon monoxide, one of the gasses being released by the ATMOS devices around the world, is highly flammable in an oxygen atmosphere . . . but the oxygen would be consumed to combust the CO. The Doctor's solution to the ATMOS poisoning of Earth's atmosphere would have wiped out all life on Earth!

Beyond that, "The Poison Sky"is well-presented, but not very high on character development. Wilfred Mott continues to worry about Donna Noble and The Doctor is as clever as usual, but only Donna really develops in the episode. Donna's trip into the Sontaran ship has her moving from being, essentially, an investigator to an action hero. In "The Poison Sky," she dispatches a Sontaran warrior that that's a big step for her!

The performances in "The Poison Sky" are good, but none of them particularly challenge any of the actors.

Ultimately, "The Poison Sky" resolves the story started in "The Sontaran Stratagem" in a very straightforward way. It's an average episode with little to excite viewers and little to complain about.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Biddy Hodson, please check out my reviews of:
Hellboy
The Mists Of Avalon
Bedazzled

5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Return Of Donna Noble: "Partners In Crime"

The Good: Fun tone, Amazingly cute adversaries, Fun direction, Decent character development
The Bad: Pretty standard plot
The Basics: Donna Noble returns to Doctor Who where she reunites with The Doctor, who is investigating one of the weirdest alien invasions yet!


As Doctor Who progressed, one of the challenges the show faced was how to keep the series interesting through different Doctors and Companions. Perhaps the most incredible arc of the contemporary Doctor Who was that of Donna Noble. Donna Noble appeared in "The Runaway Bride" (reviewed here!) where she was quickly established as one of the least-likable, least-interesting guest stars to accompany The Doctor on one of his missions. The incredible thing about Donna Noble's character arc is that she evolves into one of the best, most important Companions The Doctor has! That arc continues with the return of Donna Noble in "Partners In Crime."

"Partners In Crime" begins as a screwball comedy, with a caper-style soundtrack. That tone carries through most of the episode and gets the tenure of Donna Noble off to an energetic start. In fact, the tone is so different from most other Doctor Who episodes that it is easy to overlook just how mundane the plot is!

Independent of one another, Donna Noble and The Doctor find themselves in London, investigating Adipose Industries, a diet pill company that advertises with the slogan "The fat just walks away." After getting customer records (and a buyer's incentive) from Adipose Industries, Donna visits Stacey Harris and The Doctor meets with Roger Davies. Roger informs The Doctor that his pound a day has been disappearing precisely by 1:10 A.M. each day and Donna inadvertently triggers the Adipose in Stacey, causing her entire body to be transformed into tiny creatures - the Adipose.

Donna returns home to visit her sky-watching Grandfather, Wilfred, while The Doctor returns to the TARDIS, where he studies the Adipose technology and finds himself talking to himself. Both The Doctor and Donna re-infiltrate the Adipose Industries headquarters, where Donna evades capture when Penny (a reporter) uses the same tactic as she does to try to avoid Miss Foster. Foster reveals to Penny (as Donna and The Doctor spy upon them) the nature of the Adipose and her presence on Earth. Pursued by Foster, The Doctor and Donna reunite and the pair works together to stop Foster from using the human race as incubators for the Adipose race.

"Partners In Crime" is a fun episode and it manages to do something that very few episode of Doctor Who does: it explores the effects of The Doctor on a secondary character. In the prior season, characters like Donna Noble and Sally Sparrow were affected by The Doctor and after the episodes in which they appear, they essentially disappear. "Partners In Crime" picks Donna Noble back up and it illustrates that after "The Runaway Bride" Donna Noble became obsessed with extraordinary events on Earth - rumors of alien invasions, bees disappearing, etc.

Similarly, The Doctor has a chance to reflect upon the idea that his last two Companions - Rose and Martha Jones - have left him abandoned and alone. He even has a moment in "Partners In Crime" where he is able to reflect on how meeting him might not have been the best thing for either Martha or Rose. Donna, however, is able to point out how Martha rubbed off on The Doctor and it is a pretty insightful observation.

Still, in true Doctor Who fashion, the humor is mixed with horror and the reflective moments fall away to plot. Threatened by The Doctor realizing who she is and what she is doing on Earth, Miss Foster begins to transform all the Adipose users into the cute little fat-based Adipose. With millions of lives in the balance, The Doctor and Donna struggle to stop the signal that is liquidating the Londoners. The emergency parthenogenesis that Foster induces is horrific.

"Partners In Crime" is well-acted and well-directed, even if the special effect of the Adipose is pretty ridiculous. The episode foreshadows the two big continuity aspects of the fourth season. Foster mentions how the Adipose nursery planet disappeared and that sets up the encounters Donna and the Doctor will have as they discover there are multiple planets missing. As well, "Partners In Crime" marks the first mysterious reappearance of Rose Tyler. This is Rose's first time back to our universe since she was condemned to a parallel universe at the climax of "Doomsday" (reviewed here!).

The result is a fresh-feeling start to the fourth season of Doctor Who and an episode that, in rare fashion, replays better than it initially seems!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of David Tennant as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other science fiction comedies, please check out my reviews of:
"Our Man Bashir" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Men In Black
"Blue Harvest" - Family Guy

7/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Saga Of Donna Noble: Doctor Who Season 4!

The Good: Performances, Character development, Concept of the season's arc
The Bad: Execution of the season's arc is fraught with technical problems, A couple of throwaway episodes
The Basics: David Tennant’s tenure as The Doctor comes to an end when he pairs with Donna Noble and encounters two old adversaries who force him to reunite all his allies to thwart.


As fans look back on the modern Doctor Who, it is likely to be seen as a turning point in the show when David Tennant and Russell T. Davies left the series. Given how well Tennant has been aging and the huge narrative gaps at the end of the fourth season of Doctor Who (which was Tennant and Davies's last), perhaps the solution to making Doctor Who great again is to make more seasons with Tennant's Doctor as the protagonist. And the fourth season of Doctor Who has some true moments of greatness; the season has some clever concepts and ambitious ideas that replay far better than some of the earlier - and certainly the subsequent - seasons.

Part of what makes the fourth season of Doctor Who so good is that the initial impression of the new Companion quickly fades and is replaced with an understanding that Donna Noble has a lot going for her. Following "Last Of The Time Lords" (reviewed here!), The Doctor was in need of a new Companion. The fourth season of Doctor Who quickly pairs The Doctor with Donna Noble who was introduced in the third season episode "The Runaway Bride" (reviewed here!) and actually returns Martha Jones to the narrative for significant chunks of the season. As well, Billie Piper's Rose Tyler appears intermittently throughout the season, until she bursts back from the alternate universe at the season's climax to take her place alongside The Doctor's other Companions and allies. The season then includes an extensive denouement of specials that forces David Tennant to end his tenure as The Doctor.

And, for the most part, the season works.

After a solo adventure to rescue Earth from a falling space Titanic, The Doctor finds himself investigating a new company that is promising sudden, extreme weight loss throughout London. In the process of exposing the alien Adipose using fat humans as reproductive incubators, The Doctor reunites with Donna Noble. Following her first encounter with The Doctor, Noble became obsessed with fringe phenomenon and she has been looking for him ever since. She invites herself along with The Doctor and she begins to advocate for him to intervene on some of their adventures to Pompeii and the Ood homeworld. Donna Noble is horrified by how people act, enslaving the Ood and when The Doctor has to be argued into rescuing a single Roman family.

Called back to Earth, Donna and The Doctor combat the Sontarans. Throughout their adventures, Rose Tyler appears on the periphery and The Doctor and Donna hear tales of planets that have gone missing. Tyler warns of the oncoming Darkness; the stars are going out and planets are disappearing as part of the machinations of an enemy of The Doctor. In combating that threat, The Doctor loses all of his allies and spends some time wandering the galaxy through space and time on his own . . . until The Master is resurrected and attacks Earth in a way that forces him to focus his resolve on saving his beloved planet. The Doctor rushes into his final conflict with The Master having received prophecies of his impending doom and must choose to intervene to save Earth or save himself!

The dual joys of the fourth season of Doctor Who are catching the blink-and-you-miss-them cameos of Rose Tyler for the early episodes and seeing David Tennant and Catherine Tate working together as The Doctor and Donna Noble. Rose Tyler has been trapped in an alternate universe for years and when she pops up at the climax of "Partners In Crime," viewers had a reasonable burst of expectations and theories. The result is a pretty awesome pay-off that sparked more fanfic than one could imagine.

Unfortunately, the execution that yields the awesome result is more or less preposterous. The idea of planets being abducted is a cool one; the idea that humans would ever notice (let alone long before it is too late) is utterly ridiculous. Rose Tyler warns of the Darkness, that the stars are going out. Stars being destroyed anywhere in our galaxy would take years - decades to centuries - to be noticeable on Earth in any quantity or pattern. In other words, if some evil were growing out from a central point, destroying stars as they went, by the time the light reached us to let us know of its existence, odds are that the star destroyer would be right behind.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is a lot of delight to be had in the interactions between David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Tennant and Tate had a working relationship before Doctor Who and their knowledge of how to play off one another to get some of the best performances out of each other comes through. Tate initially plays Donna Noble as loud and brash, but she quickly evolves the character into someone who is an engaged, intelligent conspiracy theorist with a clear sense of compassion. Noble's initial loud and crass nature transitions organically into a sense out outrage; Tate makes that transition smooth and compelling.

The season transitions near the end into specials that bridge the effective climax with the end of David Tennant's tenure on Doctor Who. Unfortunately, immediately before the Tennant finales, The Doctor undergoes an incredible character transition that saps the life out of the earliest episodes of Matt Smith's incarnation of The Doctor by the way subsequent showrunner Steven Moffat fails to follow-up or follow through on the new direction. It is the Doctor Who character equivalent of the White Walkers appearing at the climax of the second season of Game Of Thrones, appearing to be on the doorstep of the northern territories, but then taking until the fifth season to actually arrive. Sadly, with Moffat, the final vision of Davies's incarnation of Tennant's Doctor does not materialize.

That, however, is not a problem of the fourth season. Instead, the season has an incredible mix of cool concepts and characters - "Silence In The Library"/"Forest Of The Dead" introduces River Song in a clever and compelling way - and remakes some awesome ideas in the Doctor Who universe ("Turn Left"). The resurgence of Martha Jones for "The Sontaran Stratagem" through "The Doctor's Daughter" is fun and outside a couple of throwaways - most notably "Midnight" - the season is compelling and goes in an interesting direction. And, it is refreshing to have a season where the Companion is not gushing over The Doctor and where The Doctor is not the moral absolute some want him to be.

For more information on this season, be sure to check out the episodes encompassed in it. They are individually reviewed at:
"Voyage Of The Damned"
"Partners In Crime"
"The Fires Of Pompeii"
"Planet Of The Ood"
"The Sontaran Stratagem"
"The Poison Sky"
"The Doctor's Daughter"
"The Unicorn And The Wasp"
"Silence In The Library"
"Forest Of The Dead"
"Midnight"
"Turn Left"
"The Stolen Earth"
"Journey's End"
(Specials - Effectively Season 4, Part 2)
"The Next Doctor"
"Planet Of The Dead"
"The Waters Of Mars"
"The End Of Time: Part One"
"The End Of Time: Part Two"

7.5/10

For other movie and television reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Fanfic For Whovians: Why “Doomsday” Is So Good!

The Good: Good plot development, Cool effects, Wonderful dialogue, Great acting!
The Bad: Unfortunately light on character
The Basics: The Cybermen and Daleks square off, endangering two universes and threatening to wrench Rose Tyler from The Doctor once and for all!


Virtually every fandom in existence has a base that tries to create its own stories set in the universe the fans love. In the case of Doctor Who, there are fifty years of canon and fanfic for those who love the many iterations of the show to go through. As someone who is still pretty new to Doctor Who and its fandom, I can only imagine how many stories there are from fans about encounters between the Daleks and Cybermen. I can only imagine how many people creamed themselves when the fantasy of the Daleks and Cybermen interacting became canon in “Doomsday.”

“Doomsday” is the direct sequel to “Army Of Ghosts” (reviewed here!) and those who do not watch that episode are likely to be lost on much of the most significant aspects of “Doomsday.” “Doomsday” is the story of how Rose Tyler “dies” in our universe and given that she narrates from the episode’s beginning and we see her alive, there is no real surprise in the fact that she is not actually killed in the episode. “Doomsday” makes the intriguing implicit argument that the best fanfic concepts can be executed by those who write the show. Doctor Who’s headwriter at the time of “Doomsday” was Russell T. Davies and it is clear from some of the delightful interplay between the Daleks and Cybermen that he had a great time writing the episode. The Daleks and Cybermen are snarky to one another and that is incredibly fun to watch!

With the Void Ship opened and the Daleks exposed in Torchwood, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, and The Doctor are all in critical jeopardy. The Daleks and Cybermen square off against one another, snarking the entire time. What looks like potential salvation for humanity – the Daleks and Cybermen being preoccupied with destroying one another – quickly turns disastrous as the Cybermen begin harvesting humans to join their ranks. While Jackie manages to avoid being converted to a Cyberman, Yvonne Hartman is not so lucky and the head of Torchwood falls. While Jackie runs for her life, the Doctor is abducted by the alternate universe’s Pete Tyler and Torchwood. Pete Tyler is obsessed with protecting his universe by having The Doctor seal the rift between universes with the Cybermen on the other side. Armed with his cunning, a pair of 3-D glasses, and Torchwood’s advanced weaponry and personnel, The Doctor returns to our universe where he learns that the four Daleks that came out of the Void Ship are the Cult Of Skarro.

The Cult Of Skarro needs the Doctor to open the Genesis Ark, which was in the Void Ship with them. When Rose and the Doctor are rescued, Mickey falls into the Genesis Ark, activating it. As the Cybermen converge upon Torchwood tower, the Daleks open the Ark, which The Doctor realizes was a Time Lord prison ship for millions of Daleks. The Doctor hatches an audacious plan; open the void and all creatures from alternate realities will be sucked into the void. Rose is condemned to the alternate universe in order to save her life. With Torchwood on the verge of falling, the Doctor works to save everyone he can, including Rose.

“Doomsday” is an undeniably cool episode, though the end of Rose Tyler’s main narrative is somewhat less satisfying than it ought to be. For an episode that is supposed to be Rose Tyler’s climactic tale, Jackie Tyler and Pete Tyler actually have scenes of more character significance than Rose does. When Pete and Jackie meet, they have an exchange that allows them to choose one another and to reflect upon their lives. Rose Tyler is not given that chance. Instead, a plot contrivance separates her from The Doctor and there is something strangely unimaginative about how neither The Doctor nor Rose Tyler think to postulate about the existence of an alternate universe version of The Doctor.

Rose basically chooses to stay by the side of The Doctor, but she is robbed of her choice when the force of the Void menaces her. On the plus side, it leads to one of the show’s most explicit expressions of emotion between The Doctor and Rose.

“Doomsday” offers the first glimmer of weakness for the Cybermen when Hartman’s cyberconverted form resists their programming enough to fight the Cybermen. That conceit informs all subsequent showrunners and starts the diminishing of the Cybermen. Given how monolithically powerful the Cybermen and their programming were in the alternate universe, their sudden weakness comes without any real explanation.

Despite the somewhat unsatisfying mechanism for getting rid of Rose Tyler, “Doomsday” is characterized by amazing performances. David Tennant plays The Doctor as sad and intense, goofy and in charge. Billie Piper does not come across as whiny or annoying when she loses everything and Rose breaks down. Instead, she plays the part of the reasonably and appropriately lost and hurt traveler. Piper manages to make Rose’s crying scenes heartfelt and emotional, as opposed to seeming like a spoiled blonde with first world problems.

David Tennant is given a somewhat harder task late in the episode; he must perform his most powerful scene opposite no one. Tennant looks suitably tortured and he makes The Doctor appear lost and hurt.

“Doomsday” has a strong ending to a season that had turned stagnant. Despite the quality of the episodes that preceded the two part finale, the second season goes out on a high note with “Doomsday” and leaves a new issue for The Doctor that is enough to make one want to come back to the Doctor’s journey!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of the Tenth Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other big season finales, please check out my reviews of:
“Death In Heaven” - Doctor Who
“Redemption” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“Episode 7” - Twin Peaks

8/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Power Lead-In: “Army Of Ghosts” Sets The Stage Masterfully!

The Good: Engaging plot, Moments of character, Effects
The Bad: Sets up and has to explain a ton of plot details
The Basics: “Army Of Ghosts” sets up another powerful Doctor Who season finale, though it is largely dependent upon seeing the rest of the season to understand the magnitude of the events in it.


There are few hours of television that I have seen over and over again that I have more of an emotional reaction to the more I see it. While Doctor Who is one of the newer shows that I have gotten into, “Army Of Ghosts” is one of the few episodes that I have more and more of a reaction to. The episode opens with a monologue – which traditionally I abhor – that has Rose declaring that this is the story of how her journey with The Doctor came to an end. Hearing her open the episode with that declaration, chokes me up more and more when I rewatch the episode.

And it is worth it. “Army Of Ghosts” is an obvious set-up episode, the first part of a two-parter and it is one of the stronger penultimate episodes of a season. Even knowing that the episode is not actually the last time Rose Tyler will be seen, the episode does a decent job of setting up a good send-off for her. More than that, “Army Of Ghosts” ties the second season of Doctor Who together well. Answering the peppered mystery of who/what the Torchwood Institute is that began in “The Christmas Invasion” (reviewed here!), “Army Of Ghosts” is well-constructed even if it is a bit light on character development and heavy with setting up plot points.

Opening with Rose considering her life before and after she met The Doctor, Rose and The Doctor return to Earth. Rose is miffed when her gift of bazoolium from an alien market does not phase Jackie at all. Instead, Jackie tells Rose that her dead grandfather is about to appear. Moments later, ghostly shadows appear, including one that Jackie claims is her father and another that passes through The Doctor. The Doctor discovers from Jackie that for the past two months, “ghosts” have been appearing at regular intervals. The “ghosts” seem to be manipulated or measured by the Torchwood Institute, which is also investigating a mysterious sphere that seems to exist visually, but not in any other measurable way.

When a Cyberman appears at Torchwood, where it absorbs a pair of workers who want to play hooky to snog, The Doctor and Rose set up a trap for one of the “ghosts.” That trap draws the attention of the Torchwood Institute and its leader, Yvonne Hartman. When the TARDIS, with Jackie Tyler still aboard, is arrives at the Torchwood Institute, Hartman incarcerates The Doctor and Jackie (who is impersonating Rose). The Doctor is able to identify the mysterious sphere as a Void Ship, an impossible vessel used to travel the space between dimensions. After learning about Torchwood and its obsession with the Void Ship, The Doctor convinces Hartman not to run the next Ghost Shift to allow “ghosts” to exploit the cracks in dimensions caused by the Void Ship’s arrival in our universe. But after Rose is captured by Torchwood, the Cybermen-influenced Torchwood employees start a Ghost Shift that will completely change the world.

“Army Of Ghosts” is a wonderful set-up episode, even if it is plot-heavy. While Torchwood was formed at the climax of “Tooth And Claw” (reviewed here!), exactly what they have been up to since Queen Victoria has been a mystery. That mystery is answered in “Army Of Ghosts.” The episode also marks the return of Mickey, who appeared lost in “The Age Of Steel” (reviewed here!). “Army Of Ghosts” is well-constructed, despite lacking a resolution. The episode seeds two huge anomalies: the ghosts and the void ship and before the end, the mystery of each of those anomalies is solved. That is refreshing.

“Army Of Ghosts” has a great sense of rising action. While the episode starts with one of the most goofy premises of any episode in the modern Doctor Who and it predictably develops beyond that premise. Fans of Doctor Who will instantly know what Jackie Tyler does not; the ghosts cannot be ghosts and so there is a thrill of discovery as to what they are. Devoted fans – the ones who will be thrilled by the return of the Cybermen – will be able to call well in advance their return based on nothing else but the preponderance of Bluetooth-like headsets around Torchwood.

For an episode that is promising the death of Rose Tyler, the biggest character moment actually comes from Mickey. Mickey returns to our universe confident, smart and surprisingly badass. When he rescues Rose Tyler and details what happened in the universe he was left in, he is almost a completely different character. Mickey and Noel Clarke, who portrays him, is undeniably watchable in “Army Of Ghosts.”

Beyond that, David Tennant is a predictable scene-stealer in “Army Of Ghosts.” Tennant has good chemistry on-screen with Billie Piper in the episode, but he is actually stuck on his own or with Tracy-Ann Oberman (Yvonne) for the bulk of the episode. Tennant has some wonderful physical performance moments as he peers into special effects that clearly were not present when he shot the scenes. He “sells” the universe of Doctor Who beautifully through his acting.

Ultimately, “Army Of Ghosts” is a fun set-up episode that distracts viewers from the impending doom of Rose Tyler creating a mystery that it then resolves! That sets its sequel episode, “Doomsday” up for an hour of delighting viewers for a conflict they have waited decades for.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of the Tenth Doctor here!
Thanks!]

For other big penultimate episodes, please check out my reviews of:
“Dark Water” - Doctor Who
“Bounty” - Star Trek: Enterprise
“Darkness Falls” - The X-Files

7/10

For other Doctor Who episode and movie reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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