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.
| | |

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.
| | |

"The End Of Time, Part One" Returns The Master Wrong (And So Right!)

The Good: Good performances, Some good character moments, One or two neat twists
The Bad: Special effects are decidedly mixed, Fits poorly with the episode that preceded it, Ridiculous set-up for the return of the villain
The Basics: "The End Of Time, Part 1" sets up the big finale of David Tennant's tenure as The Doctor with mixed results.


In science fiction epics, there is the old, unfortunately accurate, adage that no one truly stays dead. Doctor Who is no exception. As David Tennant's reign as The Doctor wound down, a suitable end needed to be constructed for the character. That end began with the prophecy at the climax of "Planet Of The Dead" (reviewed here!) where The Doctor was told his death was imminent and that death would knock four times. To realize that, the two-part "The End Of Time" presented the story of the end of Tennant's Doctor with the return of The Master. For those keeping score, The Master was killed at the climax of "Last Of The Time Lords" (reviewed here!) by his human wife.

But, in true science fiction form, Doctor Who plays the resurrection conceit in "The End Of Time." Not insulting the viewer with using time travel or some "The Master wasn't really dead" ridiculousness, "The End Of Time" has a straightforward resurrection of The Master. The science behind The Master's return is completely wonky; it has the feel of magic and that, combined with The Ood suddenly being evolved in weird ways while The Doctor mindmelds with them, weakens some of the feeling of reality that usually grounds some of the more fantastic elements of Doctor Who. Saxon's attempt to stop the resurrection with information from "the secret books of Saxon" just seems ridiculous.

Opening with narration that implies that many people on Earth are having bad dreams as part of the end of the world, Wilfred Mott recalls the nightmares that many others have forgotten. He has a flash of The Master laughing and it leaves him unsettled. At a church, Mott is visited by a strange woman who tells him of the Legend Of The Blue Box, who implies that The Doctor is soon to return. The Doctor arrives on the Ood homeworld to visit Ood Sigma and learn about his impending death. There The Doctor realizes that the Ood's evolution has been accelerated and the Ood have been experiencing a collective nightmare, which leads him to believe something is not right in time and space. The Ood show The Doctor Lucy Saxon, imprisoned and alone, and people on Earth who might be interested in The Master.

On Earth, Christmastime 2009, a coven of women loyal to The Master use Lucy's DNA, The Master's ring and their own life forces to bring The Master back. While The Doctor makes his way back to Earth, Wilfred Mott organizes the senior citizens to try to find him. The Master, resurrected hungry, crazy, and with the apparent ability to fly, starts to kill people to try to gain power. Elsewhere, the wealthy Joshua Naismith activates a strange, alien machine. After an intimate conversation with Wilfred Mott, The Doctor tracks down The Master, who incapacitates him before he is captured by Naismith's forces. Naismith has resurrected The Master for his daughter, but soon finds he is unable to control the crazy Master.

"The End Of Time" makes Wilfred Mott into a full-fledged assistant to The Doctor in such a way that the viewer almost instantly feels they were robbed of The Doctor's next great Companion. That Mott and/or one of the Ood were not given the chance to be proper Companions for The Doctor and that he went through a period without any Companions is somewhat disappointing. "The End Of Time, Part 1" illustrates some of what could have been by showing how cool Mott and the Ood would have been as Companions. Wilfred oscillates between fun and horrified in "The End Of Time, Part 1," which makes him more interesting than some of the Companions were initially.

John Simm bursts right back into the role of The Master. Simm plays The Master as undeniably crazy and he is unsettling to watch, from his first scenes laughing to him beating the trash can at a construction site. The Master, in "The End Of Time, Part 1" is not a subtle being and Simm plays him as dangerous and insane quite well. The Master, in being resurrected, now has superpowers - he has lightning hands reminiscent of Emperor Palpatine. The sudden conceits surrounding The Master - his powers and his resurrection - make the episode feel like it is relying on something supernatural instead of scientific.

The superlative scene of "The End Of Time, Part 1" is not the big battle scene, but rather an emotional scene between The Doctor and Mott. The scene makes an oblique reference to the climax of "The Waters Of Mars" (reviewed here!), where The Doctor made a tragic mistake. The emotion of his epiphany and the tragedy of those events is muted by The Doctor's ridiculous time spent off between that episode and this one. The ridiculous entrance of The Doctor on the planet of the Ood does not pick up directly where that loss left off and so The Doctor breaking down with Mott is somewhat refreshing to see, even if it feels somewhat contrived getting him back to that point.

"The End Of Time, Part 1" marks the return of Donna Noble as well. Donna buys Wilfred a copy of Joshua Naismith's for Christmas, not quite knowing why. The idea that Donna still has some connection to The Doctor and The Ood is good and presented fairly subtly within the episode.

The special effect of The Master phasing is pretty cool. Unfortunately, his monstrous ability is balanced by some of the most fake looking skeletons ever seen on television.

Ultimately, "The End Of Time, Part 1" is a mediocre set-up episode that packs in a lot and has potential, but to play off all the conceits moves far too often into the ridiculous.

For other works with Timothy Dalton, please check out my reviews of:
The Tourist
Toy Story 3
Looney Tunes: Back In Action
License To Kill
The Living Daylights
The Lion In Winter

[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!]

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.
| | |

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.
| | |

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.
| | |

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.
| | |

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.
| | |

Steven Moffat Writes A Check He Cannot Cash With "Forest Of The Dead!"

The Good: Acting, Character, Plot development and reversals
The Bad: None!
The Basics: "Forest Of The Dead" is a perfect Doctor Who episode that gives a proper introduction to the potentials River Song represents while resolving the conflict in the library with the Vashta Nerada.


Some brilliant episodes of Doctor Who are hard to go back to because of how they are followed up upon. The saga of River Song comes to a close in "Forest Of The Dead," an episode that introduces Song as a character chock full of potential for adventures with subsequent (non-David Tennant) Doctors. Unfortunately, going back to "Forest Of The Dead" after viewers see "The Husbands Of River Song" (reviewed here!), what stands out most is how River Song had amazing potential that was utterly wasted. The on-screen adventures of The Doctor and River Song end in "The Husbands Of River Song" unless Steven Moffat screws up again or Song is The Doctor's next Companion.

"Forest Of The Dead" is a direct sequel to "Silence In The Library" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the episode without allusions to where the prior episode ended. After all, "Silence In The Library" was a cliffhanger and it left The Doctor and River Song in a remarkably perilous position. Donna Noble was lost while teleporting into the TARDIS and then appeared as a Node which told The Doctor that Donna Noble had been saved. "Forest Of The Dead" was exceptionally good at answering the questions raised by "Silence In The Library."

While The Doctor and River flee the Vashta Nerada, the little girl in her fantasy world watches television. On her television is the story of Donna Noble, who she recognizes from her dreams of the library. Donna integrates to an entirely new life at a CAL hospital. There, Dr. Moon introduces her to a man, who she marries and settles down with. She has a flash of The Doctor and she seems vaguely aware of time moving at erratic intervals, but Dr. Moon quickly corrects her notions. In the library, River Song proves herself to The Doctor when he becomes frustrated that she has some version of his sonic screwdriver. Unfortunately, another member of her team is consumed by the Vashta Nerada.

The next day at the park, Donna confronts a mysterious woman in black she has seen lurking and the woman tries to reveal the true nature of the place they both occupy. The Doctor utilizes the opportunity of the Vashta Nerada being confined to space suits of people they have killed to communicate with the swarms. The Doctor realizes where the 4022 people saved by the computer went and he tries to figure out how to rematerialize those people (and Donna).

"Forest Of The Dead" is a three-pronged mystery and it is a rare one that works on all three fronts amazingly well. The answer to the simulation mystery is cleverly executed. The internal world is an expression of the data core and it is convincingly portrayed. The conflict within CAL adds another layer of nightmare to an episode that is already nightmarish for its creature of the week. The conceit also allows the episode to take on a ticking clock aspect that feels organic, in the form of the main computer preparing to self-destruct (or erase everything).

The River Song storyline is exceptionally well-executed and the result in the episode is very satisfying.

The Vashta Nerada are presented in "Forest Of The Dead" as frightening adversaries who seem like a gimmick, but are fairly fully-formed entities. The idea that the Vashta Nerada can both negotiate and were victims of massive deforestation is clever.

"Forest Of The Dead" is not just clever on the page, it is brilliantly presented and portrayed. The gimmick of CAL could be seen as just a ridiculous gimmick or cheap reversal, but it plays as a revelation that ties the story together in an interesting way. The performances are universally wonderful, most of the best simply being reaction shots for David Tennant, Catherine Tate or Alex Kingston. Between powerful moments of reflection and bold, emotional, proclamations, "Forest Of The Dead" has intense, amazing performances for the essential characters and the supporting guest cast.

Ultimately, "Forest Of The Dead" is an ideal second part; it satisfyingly pays off the elements left unresolved from the first part, while being solid on its own.

For other works with Colin Salmon, please visit my reviews of:
The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret - Season 1
AVP: Alien Vs. Predator
Die Another Day
The World Is Not Enough
Tomorrow Never Dies

[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!]

10/10

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.
| | |

Be Afraid Of What Is Really In The Dark: "Silence In The Library" Succeeds!

The Good: Plot, Performances, Moments of character
The Bad: Light on character development, Set-up without resolution
The Basics: "Silence In The Library" effectively introduces River Song and the Vashta Nerada to intrigue Doctor Who fans and give them nightmares!


In the history of science fiction, there are remarkably few adversaries that are either not ruined by overexposure or remain ridiculously underdeveloped. A great example of the former is The Borg from the Star Trek franchise; they began as horrifying, menacing, and virtually unstoppable in Star Trek: The Next Generation and were weakened into essentially a cybernetic cult in Star Trek: Voyager. A great example of the latter are the Vashta Nerada. To date, the Vashta Nerada only appear in the Doctor Who two-parter "Silence In The Library" and "Forest Of The Dead."

While the Vashta Nerada make their debut in "Silence In The Library," their appearance is largely overshadowed by the first appearance of River Song. River Song is an immensely popular secondary character in Doctor Who and given that viewers get to see her and not the Vashta Nerada, it's unsurprising that fans remember "Silence In The Library" for River Song instead of the shadowy adversary. "Silence In The Library" follows on the tradition of "Blink" (reviewed here!) in creating an incredibly scary adversary that is based on something that is (more or less) around everywhere.

Opening with a little girl suspended in midair above a massive library, the girl is revealed to be in therapy. During her session with Dr. Moon, the girl is alarmed when someone tries to break into the room she is in in the library in her mind. Unbeknownst to her, it is The Doctor and Donna Noble. It is the 51st Century when The Doctor and Donna arrive at the Library, an entire planet that serves as a repository of all humanity's printed works. The Doctor is shocked to realize that there is no one in the library, though some form of life is registering on the planet at more than a million million lifeforms. Donna theorizes that maybe the books are registering as life forms, but before that can be explored, a Node contacts The Doctor and Donna with a message from the library itself. The Node's message is laced with menace that someone has come to the Library and another message advises people at the library to count the shadows.

Running from the darkness, The Doctor and Donna enter a room with a levitating security droid. The droid houses the personality of the little girl and the girl foresees others coming into the library. Moments later, a team of astronauts arrives in the library, led by the archaeologist River Song, who appears to recognize and know The Doctor. The Doctor informs Donna that the fear of the dark comes from an entity called the Vashta Nerada, which are like shadow piranha in the air. Shadows can be infected with Vashta Nerada, which then consume the people in contact with the shadow. The Vashta Nerada consume Miss Evangelista, removing all of her flesh from her body (though her space suit's interface continues working even after she is dead). After the last echoes of Evangelista fade, the Doctor explains what the Vashta Nerada are and he tries to get Donna out of the library while the rescue team is attacked.

"Silence In The Library" features a message for The Doctor that comes through space and time to his psychic paper, much like the Face Of Boe did on "New Earth" (reviewed here!). That immediately puts River Song on par with Captain Harkness. It's intriguing to see someone who recognizes The Doctor, but claims he looks younger than she has ever seen him, which makes sense for The Doctor encountering her for the first time. The mystery in "Silence In The Library" comes from River Song: when the Library was sealed 100 years before, a message went out to the owner's family stating that 4022 people were saved, without any survivors. Figuring out what that means is the conceit that allows the expedition to be in the same time and place as The Doctor and Donna.

The other major conceit in "Silence In The Library" is the narrative technique of the little girl's world set opposite the "real" world of the library. The entire subplot with the little girl and Dr. Moon is established to explain the mystery of the people who went missing when the library was sealed one hundred years ago. The mystery is not resolved in "Silence In The Library" and while CAL and Dr. Moon are referenced, how they tie in with "Forest Of The Dead" is in no way clear in this episode.

Donna Noble continues to be characterized as the ultimate pragmatist in "Silence In The Library." She calls bullshit on the sonic screwdriver not working on wood. She bonds with Miss Evangelista, the resident personal assistant in the group of astronauts. Both Noble and Evangelista are fish out of water; so the brief time that Evangelista is in the episode, she gives Donna Noble a very humanizing moment and an actual relationship.

The corporate aspect that is prevalent throughout Davies's tenure as showrunner for Doctor Who is present in the form of Mr. Lux, the owner of the library. He is, in many ways, a stereotype or a parody of a businessman. Still, he adds a convincing realism to an episode that is chock full of either long, slow build-up or seemingly supernatural aspects.

The performances in "Silence In The Library" are universally good. Alex Kingston explodes onto the screen as River Song and she and Catherine Tate share a scene that, in lesser hands, could have been boring exposition. Kingston is given a surprisingly heavy emotional scene and she does an excellent job of adding weight and the impression of experience to one of her earliest scenes with Tennant's Doctor. Tennant and Tate continue their incredible chemistry together with well-written banter passing between them seemingly effortlessly. The big surprise is how quickly Kingston and Tennant get into a repartee.

"Silence In The Library" is not flawless and not just because director Euros Lyn has a shot where River Song takes The Doctor's hand and starts running only to have the shot reframed and they are no longer proximate enough to be holding hands. The episode is much more a set-up episode than a clever execution of its ideas. It is a remarkably effective introduction of River Song and the Vashta Nerada. But while "Silence In The Library" is more than enough to make viewers afraid of the Vashta Nerada that could live in any shadows, it is not quite enough to make viewers care about River Song. Fortunately, it gets an amazing follow-up and is clever enough to make viewers want to follow up upon it!

For other works with Josh Dallas, please visit my reviews of:
Once Upon A Time - Season 2
Once Upon A Time - Season 1
Thor

[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!]

8/10

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.
| | |

The Annual Author Episode Of Doctor Who Puts Agatha Christie In With "The Unicorn And The Wasp!"

The Good: Interesting characters, Good performances
The Bad: Very predictable
The Basics: "The Unicorn And The Wasp" is more an Agatha Christie mystery than a compelling episode of Doctor Who!


As much as fans of Doctor Who might want to deny it, the tenure of Russell T. Davies as showrunner of the rebooted series had some remarkably formulaic aspects to it. One of those aspects was that each Companion got a visit to a time that afforded them the chance to meet a great English writer. Rose met Charles Dickens in "The Unquiet Dead" (reviewed here!) and Martha Jones had the chance to hang with Shakespeare in "The Shakespeare Code" (reviewed here!). When the current season's episode titles were announced, I was prepared for a particularly clever use of J.K. Rowling (how could one not think that was a possibility with the two-parter titled "The Girl Who Died" "The Woman Who Lived"?!), but, alas, that was not to be. Back when Donna Noble was The Doctor's Companion, though, the writer she had the chance to interact with was Agatha Christie.

Agatha Christie's appearance on Doctor Who comes in "The Unicorn And The Wasp" and unlike some of the prior author-centered episodes, "The Unicorn And The Wasp" actually fits into the larger, season-long arc of the season more directly. Back in "Partners In Crime" (reviewed here!) Donna mentions the things she was investigating and one of them was the disappearance of bees. "The Unicorn And The Wasp" revisits the throwaway line with a full, well-developed story that will (shockingly!) resonate into the season's final arc.

The Doctor and Donna Noble appear in England in the 1920s where Donna is excited by the idea of a party. While Donna is changing into period-appropriate garb, Professor Peach is murdered in the library with a pipe . . . by a giant wasp. When the guests are introduced, The Doctor and Donna are thrilled when Agatha Christie is introduced. After geeking out, The Doctor finds a newspaper and discovers from the date that it is the day before Agatha Christie (famously) went missing for ten days. Soon, they have an actual mystery to investigate in the form of Professor Peach's murder.

The mystery deepens when Donna encounters a giant wasp (bigger than a human!) in an abandoned room. Reuniting with The Doctor and Agatha Christie, Donna chases the wasp into a hallway where they realize that one of the people at the party is the wasp alien. The Doctor identifies the alien as a vespiform, which is a shape-changing alien. After The Doctor is poisoned - and rescued by Donna - he laces the dinner at the party with pepper, which shares an active ingredient with pesticides. This temporarily draws out the vespiform, but leads to another death. In the wake of that murder, Agatha Christie exposes the guests at the party to solve the mystery of which one is the alien villain!

"The Unicorn And The Wasp" is a Doctor Who version of an Agatha Christie mystery and it works pretty well. David Tennant's version of The Doctor has so few times when he actually geeks out over a person he meets and it plays to his strengths very well. The Doctor has not acted like he has met his match this way since he was infatuated with the Madame D'Pompadour in "The Girl In The Fireplace" (reviewed here!). The mystery includes red herrings from the title down - the episode is not actually about the thefts that have been attributed to The Unicorn - though that case is incidental to the episode and its story of extraterrestrial wasps. As one would expect, every character in "The Unicorn And The Wasp" is guilty of something - or is shown having their own agenda at the party.

The performances in "The Unicorn And The Wasp" are good. Actress Fenella Woolgar so dominates the episode as Agatha Christie that Felicity Jones is is virtually invisible in the episode! Woolgar plays Christie to be the equal in gravitas as Tennant's Doctor. She is articulate, direct and plays the role with an intelligence that radiates from her eyes. Woolgar and Tennant share the detective work as Christie and The Doctor and the episode works, as it does, because of their strength.

After the initial set-up and the wrap-up, Donna Noble is virtually invisible for the episode. The special effects in the episode are about as good as they can be for a CG-wasp on a television budget. Director Graeme Harper has to cheat a number of shots and while that might be an allusion to the BBC/PBS Mystery episodes that feature Agatha Christie stories, it plays out as unfortunately obvious on Doctor Who.

The result is an average episode 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!]

For other works with Felicity Jones, please check out my reviews of:
The Theory Of Everything
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Hysteria
Like Crazy

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.
| | |

Jumping Back To "The Doctor's Daughter" Reveals An Unremarkable Loose End!

The Good: Moments of character, Pacing, Moments of performance from Catherine Tate
The Bad: Acting from David Tennant and Georgia Moffett, Dull use of Martha Jones
The Basics: "The Doctor's Daughter" is a surprisingly blase episode . . . that feels much more interesting than it objectively is.


There's something unsettling about reviewing two different seasons of Doctor Who at a time. As I write this, the 9th Season of Doctor Who is in mid-stride and between new episodes each week, I'm trying to catch up on reviews of prior season's episodes. Jumping from Capaldi back to Tennant is nowhere near as seamless as one might expect! I'm back to "The Doctor's Daughter," an episode that has thus far never been revisited, despite the potential it represents and the occasional allusion to it.

"The Doctor's Daughter" picks up instantly after "The Poison Sky" (reviewed here!). As that episode wrapped up, Martha Jones visited the TARDIS with The Doctor and Donna Noble when the TARDIS decided to abruptly take off. "The Doctor's Daughter" erupts with no fanfare and the novelty of the episode makes it a harder one to return to later on.

The TARDIS lands abruptly on the planet Messaline where The Doctor is eager to get out and explore. The trio finds themselves in an underground compound and human soldiers instantly appear. Seeing no marks on the visitor's hands, the Doctor's hand is stuck in a machine which instantly generates a new human soldier based on his DNA. The young woman who comes out of the progenation machine is armed, but unable to defend Martha Jones from getting captured by the alien Hath. The Doctor and Donna are escorted to the human colony where they learn from Cobb the history of the planet. Cobb tells them that the humans and Hath are competing over the Source. Martha, for her part, sets a Hath's arm and ingratiates herself to the Hath army.

Cobb refuses to trust Jenny, as Donna names the Doctor's cloned daughter, so he locks her up with Donna and The Doctor. Jenny is excited by The Doctor's tactical knowledge, but he is resistant to accepting his new "daughter." As the Hath move off toward the Source, Donna discovers that Jenny is a Time Lady (biologically, anyway) and the trio escapes. Martha makes her way to the surface of the planet with one of the Hath, but discovers it to be a wasteland. While Donna goads The Doctor into accepting Jenny, The Doctor tries to figure out how to end the war between the humans and the Hath.

"The Doctor's Daughter" is a fun episode in many ways, but the concept is somewhat undermined by the performance. Fans might love seeing David Tennant on screen with the woman who would become his wife, but acting alongside Georgia Moffett is actually one of the problems with the episode. Tennant and Moffett have a palpable chemistry between them and in the scene where The Doctor, Jenny, and Donna are imprisoned is undermined by that chemistry. Tennent smirks his way through most of the scene, which does not work given how resistant the Doctor is supposed to be to the idea of Jenny. Indeed, Tennent's lines ring of the character being offended by the violation of his cells being used to generate Jenny and of being around as the humans prepare to wipe out the Hath, but it's hard to take The Doctor seriously when Tennent's eyes are smiling the whole time.

Donna Noble continues to develop well in "The Doctor's Daughter." Throughout the compound are number plaques and Noble works very hard to figure out what the numbers mean. Noble is used better than Martha Jones who is given a story that feels very much like a tangent. The irony is that the entire fourth season is peppered with Rose appearing in the background until the big, final arc: her reappearance comes as part of a very vital, big story. Martha's appearance in "The Doctor's Daughter" is hardly a compelling character journey. In fact, given how she is now a full-fledged medical professional, it seems odd that she lacks any sense of professional detachment to deal with the death of a Hath who sacrifices itself for her.

The Hath are an interestingly-designed alien species and the prosthetic special effect is offset by the low-tech effect of the laser beam grid. When Jenny flips her way through the laser grid, it is filmed in such a way as to cheat the actual incredible feat.

Ultimately, "The Doctor's Daughter" is very much a bottle episode, which is not particularly impressive in any real way, but does not feel bad.

[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 stories about wars without end, please check out my reviews of:
"Battle Lines" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Angel
"Episode 29" - Twin Peaks

4.5/10

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.
| | |