David Tennant’s Fandom Dreams Come True With “School Reunion!”

The Good: Good continuity, Decent acting, Good character development
The Bad: Poor special effects, Somewhat tiresome plot development
The Basics: Doctor Who assures fans of its own internal continuity when Rose and The Doctor encounter Sarah Jane Smith in modern England where they discover a school is infected by aliens.


It is no secret – and it was not at the time – that David Tennant was a lifelong fan of Doctor Who before he was cast as the Tenth Doctor in the revived Doctor Who. If it had ever been in doubt, by the time “School Reunion” aired, the cat must have been out of the bag. “School Reunion” does what none of the episodes with the Ninth Doctor (reviewed here!) managed to do – it definitively establishes that the revived Doctor Who is a continuation of all the Doctor Who that preceded it. For sure, the Daleks have popped up already, but their return follows the nebulously-resolved Time War, so it is not until “School Reunion” that the franchise is definitively solidified.

The elements that root the prior portions of the franchise with the revived one are Sarah Jane Smith and K-9, the Companions of the Fourth Doctor. Given that Tom Baker was who many fans considered the quintessential Doctor, tying the current incarnation to the Fourth Doctor makes quite a bit of sense. Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 are reintroduced into the Doctor Who narrative in “School Reunion” and more than simply offering a bridge between Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, the episode is a nod to all that came before and offers a chance for Sarah Jane Smith to reflect upon her past. The episode also allows David Tennant the chance to play with the Companions that dominated the series when he became a fan and it is clear he delights in the opportunity. There are moments of wonderful acting in “School Reunion,” but some of Tennant’s acting, which is the embodiment of pure delight when his character encounters Sarah Jane Smith is not necessarily great acting on his part.

At a school in modern Britain, The Doctor joins the staff as a physics teacher and Rose finds herself working in the school cafeteria. Despite the creepy Headmaster Finch taking a student aside and The Doctor and Rose noticing irregularities with the students (like their abilities to perform incredible calculations unaided and physics knowledge that is well beyond their years) and staff (most were recently replaced), the mission that Mickey recalled them for seems to be a dead end. When Sarah Jane Smith pops up, posing as an investigative reporter, The Doctor is thrilled and Rose soon becomes jealous. After Rose witnesses an accident in the kitchen, she, The Doctor, and Mickey break into the school at night to discover what is going on.

Sarah Jane Smith had the same idea and when she finds the TARDIS in one of the school’s rooms, she and The Doctor have a reunion that allows them to shed their disguises and be honest with one another. Sarah Jane Smith brings the defunct K-9 to The Doctor and while Rose and Sarah Jane Smith are snarking at one another, The Doctor repairs the robot dog. K-9 is able to analyze the substance that wounded one of the cafeteria workers as Krillitane oil. The Doctor reveals to his companions that the Krillitanes are a genetic amalgamation of multiple races they have encountered. Disturbed by the Krillitanes use of the school, The Doctor squares off against Headmaster Finch, who wants to use the Doctor to evolve his race while utilizing the children to solve a god equation that would give the Krillitanes control over the universe.

The Krillitanes are an interesting adversary, but more than their quest for the equation that will unlock the secrets of the universe, “School Reunion” is about the relationships of The Doctor. Sarah Jane Smith erupts into the modern mythos of Doctor Who as the Companion left behind. In “School Reunion,” Sarah Jane Smith asks the question that fans like Tennant must have asked for decades: if The Doctor is immortal and continued to regenerate and visit Earth, why did he never go back for his beloved companion? The practical answer, of course, is that different show-runners had different visions for where the series was going and different versions of The Doctor were intended to play off their Companions in ways that expanded the character as opposed to simply repeated all that came before. Within “School Reunion,” though, the answer is given a character-based answer and it is a compelling character exploration.

The Doctor declares that he could not take Sarah Jane with him to Gallifray when he left and in the years (and Regenerations) that followed, he found the idea of watching those he cared about most – like Sarah Jane Smith – aging and eventually dying while he remained unaffected by time distasteful. More than any of the production reasons for explaining away the failure for companions to endure with multiple Doctors (for the most part), the idea that The Doctor wants both companionship and is tormented by the mortal nature of those who accompany him on his adventures is a compelling one. While there are many goofy aspects of Doctor Who and within the episode “School Reunion” itself, this in-universe explanation of why The Doctor did not continue his relationship with Sarah Jane is remarkably sensible and satisfying.

Unfortunately, “School Reunion” is not all about The Doctor’s relationship. While Mickey is given an uncommon amount of character development in “School Reunion” as he plays off K-9 and realizes his place in the Tenth Doctor’s entourage, “School Reunion” features a decent amount of time having Rose and Sarah Jane Smith sniping at one another and the Krillitane plot. The Krillitane are an interesting alien design and Headmaster Finch is ably portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head, though the role has him as something of a monolithic villain. More problematic than Head being given little wiggle room to play Finch with any depth are the special effects.

The Krillitane have a decent initial alien design, but the computer-generated batlike biped aliens, when they are exposed, are erratically rendered. The way they move and, especially, the lighting for the creatures, is not consistent and does not always fit the environment seamlessly. Even more ridiculous, director James Hawes does not have the effects department try to match the effects with the acting. As a result, during a climactic battle in the cafeteria, actress Billie Piper is laying on her back, flailing at nothing!

“School Reunion” is very much an episode for Doctor Who fans; it is not an exceptional hour of television. The plot conflict is a simple one and the character conflict is as easily resolved as it is introduced, which makes for the feeling that if one did not have a connection to the prior incarnations of Doctor Who, they are missing out on the majority of the substance of “School Reunion.”

[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!]

6/10

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 More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same On “New Earth!”

The Good: Billie Piper’s performance, Creep out factor of the plot, Cool foreshadowing
The Bad: Ridiculous plot, Pacing, Erratic balance of humor and horror, Special effects
The Basics: Alternating between creepy and ridiculous, “New Earth” acts as an effective sequel to the first season episode “The End Of The World!”


Doctor Who is good at telling serialized stories. However, most of the episodes that are serialized are major episodes that are part of important, big arcs. There are a few exceptions and one of the most obvious is “New Earth.” “New Earth” is, effectively, a sequel to the first season episode “The End Of The World” (reviewed here!). Mirroring the journey of Rose Tyler and the Ninth Doctor, Rose and the Tenth Doctor’s first off-world journey is to the distant future. Like “The End Of The World,” “New Earth” features characters in the far-distant future who are not quite human. The episode largely hinges on having seen “The End Of The World” as the main antagonist is Cassandra, the villain presumed killed in the prior episode. “New Earth” also features the Face Of Boe and in this episode, it is given more of a backstory and significance, with the assumption that it will return in the future.

Unfortunately, “New Earth” also features a shockingly blasé possession storyline. Amid a horror story involving medical experimentation is an utterly ridiculous storyline that has a disembodied version of “the last human” bouncing between various characters. While that affords Billie Piper and The Doctor with the opportunity to give dramatically different performances from their usual.

Having resolved to go out further than they had before, Rose packs a backpack and leaves Jackie and Mickey behind to join The Doctor in the Tardis. In the year 5,000,000,023 in the galaxy M-87, the TARDIS lands on New Earth. The Doctor and Rose are spied upon by Cassandra and her assistant. Taking his cue from the psychic paper, which is asking him to come to Ward 26, The Doctor takes Rose to the nearby hospital at New New York. When they are separated, The Doctor meets with the cat people who run the hospital and Rose finds herself brought into the presence of Cassandra.

When Cassandra inserts her consciousness into Rose’s body, she learns that The Doctor was with Rose and wants to get revenge upon him. Pretending to be Rose, Cassandra goes to Ward 26, where The Doctor is distracted by how quickly the Sisters Of Plentitude are curing diseases they ought not to be able to. When The Doctor and Cassandra go exploring, they discover the monstrous secret to the Sisterhood’s success: they have created harvest stock of humans who they flood with every uncured disease in order to test experimental treatments. When The Doctor realizes that Rose has been replaced and Cassandra finds the Sisters unwilling to give into her demands for riches, the flesh experiments are released and they march through the hospital like plague-filled zombies. The Doctor and Rose must save the hospital, humankind, and the actual Rose Tyler!

Billie Piper is wonderful as the Cassandra-possessed Rose Tyler. Piper takes on the inflections of Zoe Wanamaker (who voiced Cassandra) perfectly and she has such a fun delivery as she checks herself out. Her body language is loose and flamboyant in a way that Piper has never played in Doctor Who. Regardless of how ridiculous the premise of the body swap is, Piper’s performance makes it seem realistic-enough as she completely embodies a different character through much of the episode.

Not to be outdone, David Tennant seems to have quite a bit of fun as The Doctor when Cassandra possesses his body. Like Piper, Tennant loosens his body language and his effeminate deliveries of his lines are hilarious more often than not.

Unfortunately, for an essential episode of Doctor Who (which it is, if for no other reason than it introduces New Earth, continues the story of the Face Of Boe and foreshadows the next fateful meeting with the enigmatic entity), “New Earth” is creepy and a thin premise stretched long. Neither The Doctor, nor Rose Tyler truly develop as characters. The Doctor continues his streak as a guardian angel of humanity and he exhibits a willingness to do whatever he can to protect life in all forms and avenge wrongs as he finds them. Nonconsensual experimentation of the most hideous form certainly qualifies as a wrong, so of course he steps up to defend the “flesh” when he learns of its predicament.

Noticeably bad in “New Earth” are the special effects. While the make-up effect for the humanoid cats of the Sisterhood is pretty wonderful, the computer generated effects (most notably for the spreading of the disease and the resulting pustules) are ridiculous and obvious. They look like exactly what they are: computer generated effects. But more than the special effects being bad, the story is bland, predictable, and overdone. Doctor Who has nothing substantive to add to the concept of the possession storyline and to fill the rest of the episode’s running time, the ridiculous is exchanged for the creepy in “New Earth.”

[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 possession stories on television, be sure to check out my reviews of:
“Turnabout Intruder” - Star Trek
“Yes Men” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
“Witch” - Buffy The Vampire Slayer

4/10

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 New Doctor Sleeps Through Most Of “The Christmas Invasion!”

The Good: Good character development for Rose, Decent explanation of the universe, Good moments of humor/creepiness
The Bad: Largely predictable plot, A few strange continuity issues
The Basics: Earth faces annihilation when the new Doctor crashes to Earth in “The Christmas Invasion!”


There are few shows that have been, by necessity, forced to reinvent themselves like Doctor Who. Perhaps the most surprising change of direction came after only one season of the revived Doctor Who. Apparently, Christopher Eccleston had a negative experience in the first season of Doctor Who (reviewed here!), so before the season’s end, he was ready to be replaced and the BBC obliged. After a few seconds on screen in “The Parting Of The Ways” (reviewed here!), David Tennant took over as the Tenth Doctor fulltime in “The Christmas Invasion.”

“The Christmas Invasion” is the first time in the “modern” Doctor Who where the producers had to deal with explaining to viewers the mechanics of The Doctor’s regeneration. For that, they actually had a pretty easy and sensible technique; Rose Tyler’s mundane friends and family know little to nothing about Time Lords, so explaining The Doctor’s new face and body gives her the chance to answer questions. In fact, the questions that Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith have for Rose are pretty much the questions that viewers have of the show and The Doctor.

Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler are going about their days when they hear the TARDIS returning. Running out into the street, they witness the TARDIS crash in London and they are shocked when a man stumbles out, wishes them a Merry Christmas and then collapses. Rose reveals to them that this strange looking man is The Doctor and Jackie wonders if he has changed only his face or if he is an entirely different person. Rose is frustrated by the questions, just as Mickey is frustrated by Rose going on about the TARDIS and The Doctor. When Rose and Mickey are attacked in the street by mechanized Santas, they return to Jackie’s apartment (where The Doctor is laying unconscious) and are attacked by an artificial Christmas tree that arrived while Rose was out.

As Great Britain, now under the leadership of Prime Minister Harriet Jones, loses contact with its Guinevere I space probe, The Doctor believes that his regeneration energy is attracting aliens. He surmises that they are dangerous aliens and when the first images from Mars come via the Guinevere I probe, Rose and the world are shocked that there is a snarling alien there. After Harriet Jones stands up to the aliens, who the government has determined to be the Sycorax, the aliens send a signal to Earth and approximately one-third of the world’s population suddenly falls into a trance and moves to high points (like roofs). The mission specialist for the Guinevere I project realizes that all humans who have A positive blood are under the control of the Sycorax because of a blood sample he put on the space probe that the Sycorax abducted. With the Earth being held hostage by the Sycorax and their threat to execute a third of the world’s population should Jones resist, Rose works to save The Doctor and hopes he has what it takes to save the Earth!

“The Christmas Invasion” is notable in that is manages to focus more on Rose Tyler, the Doctor’s companion, than on the new Doctor. The Doctor’s absence frustrates Harriet Jones and leaves Rose feeling abandoned. While Rose comes home remarkably empowered, as the situation becomes more dire, she starts to lose her cool. While her reaction is to freak out and reunite the Doctor with the TARDIS, she never seems stupid or ignorant in “The Christmas Invasion.” Her final major scene is a tour de force of allusions to Season 1’s events and characters, but it also serves to provide a decent moment for Rose to assert herself and illustrate the spine she had at the beginning of the episode.

“The Christmas Invasion” is very plot-heavy and the plot is mostly mundane and obvious. Invasion stories are pretty standard and “The Christmas Invasion” has few surprises in the way it is plotted. The blood control that the Sycorax use is an interesting twist that otherwise complicates the straightforward and simple plot. When The Doctor finally wakes up for the final act, he is goofy and powerful and curious.

On its own, “The Christmas Invasion” explains itself very well. The episode features Harriet Jones, who was first introduced in “Aliens Of London” (reviewed here!) and the return of her character allows for much of the episode’s comedy. The rest of the humor comes from The Doctor when he faces off against the Sycorax leader. The episode also does a good job of asserting that the new Doctor means a new direction for the show. There are menacing allusions to Torchwood and Harriet Jones, who was hailed as one of Britain’s great leaders by the Ninth Doctor comes to be derided and dismissed by the Tenth Doctor. The future, it appears, is malleable in the Doctor Who universe and “The Christmas Invasion” realizes that in smart and subtle ways.

David Tennant has an auspicious first outing as the Tenth Doctor . . . once he finally gets into the show as a character who has lines. Tennant distinguishes himself as the new Doctor by consciously asking the question of who he is now and then starting to come up with some answers. Tennant has an authoritative bearing, which allows him to sell goofy lines (like a reference to The Lion King) with equal measure to his character’s rage. In his first outing, Tennant is not given enough chance to become a fully realized Doctor, but he makes an instant impression when he starts speaking as an energetic new incarnation of the Doctor.

Billie Piper and David Tennant do a decent job of working to establish a chemistry between their characters and fortunately, Rose and The Doctor do not rush it. The final scene has a huge amount of charm to it, but it does not realize the potential of the relationship, which is the way a start should be.

In the larger context of Doctor Who, “The Christmas Invasion” is billed in the episode as the first empirical proof of alien life, which is strange considering “Aliens Of London” saw an alien invasion of modern Earth in the prior season. Beyond that, “The Christmas Invasion” is a decent start, but it’s largely the result of having to come back from a peak point in the prior season, which makes it feel like more of a stumble than it is objectively.

[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 works with Penelope Wilton, please visit my reviews of:
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Pride & Prejudice
“World War Three” - Doctor Who

7/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Terror, Bananas, And Answers Come When “The Doctor Dances!”

The Good: Good plot, Decent acting, Moments of humor and horror work well, Special effects, Self-referential moments, Moments of character
The Bad: None
The Basics: Filled with good banter and horror moments, “The Doctor Dances” is an impressive resolution to the storyline begun in “The Empty Child.”


It is a rare thing for me to find a mystery truly engaging. I know that I am not the only one. In fact, there are very few dramatic television shows that produce two-part episodes (or longer arcs) in the form of mysteries. Mysteries are hard to pull off: if the clues are not all given in the first part, viewers feel cheated – like they could not have gotten the answers even by paying attention. If the clues are too obvious, though, a second part will bore viewers because they will have seen the end coming a mile away. “The Doctor Dances” is the second part of a mystery-horror episode of Doctor Who and it is actually a stronger episode than the first part.

“The Doctor Dances” follows immediately on the heels of “The Empty Child” (reviewed here!) and it is one of the rare second parts that is stronger than the first. It is impossible to discuss “The Doctor Dances” without revealing some aspects of “The Empty Child.” “The Doctor Dances” builds on the first part with all of the elements introduced in “The Empty Child” without simply reiterating the feeling of the first part.

With The Doctor saving himself, Rose, and Captain Harkness (and unwittingly, Nancy) by sending the gas mask-clad patients of the hospital to their room, Nancy collapses and is caught in the house she used to feed the children. Harkness details the con he was planning to play on The Doctor (thinking he was a Time Agent). The Doctor is convinced that the space junk, a Chula ambulance pod, is what was responsible for transforming the patients of the hospital. Together, the trio goes to the room where Jamie (The Empty Child) was brought the night the pod fell to Earth and they discover that the room is empty and the child has broken out of.

With the patients of the hospital closing in on The Doctor and Rose, Harkness helps the trio get to a secure location before he teleports out to his ship. Nancy abandons her orphan charges and tries to break into the crash site where the Chula hospital pod crashed. When Harkness rescues The Doctor and Rose, The Doctor deduces the cause of the mutation that turns people into gas mask-wearing undead. With the Nanogenes going airborne and rewriting people all over, Rose, The Doctor and Harkness find themselves at ground zero for a futuristic plague that threatens to wipe out human existence.

“The Doctor Dances” is an impressive mix of humor and horror. Doctor Who is seldom self-referential or willing to reference other science fiction programs. While “The Empty Child” referenced Star Trek, “The Doctor Dances” pokes some fun at the conceits of Doctor Who. The Doctor reveals the origins of the sonic screwdriver in a scene that makes the exposition fun and funny. Jack Harkness has a sonic disruptor and when he and The Doctor are fleeing, Harkness says what many fans of Doctor Who have long been thinking, “what the hell is the point of a sonic screwdriver?!”

Harkness is a fun character, but the real character development comes in the form of Rose Tyler and The Doctor. Rose re-establishes her interest in The Doctor, whatwith having been swept off her feet by Harkness in the prior episode. The Doctor’s trademark blend of humor and intelligence is played out brilliantly in “The Doctor Dances.” The humor comes in the form of a hilarious exchange about bananas that plays out well. What could have been a dry scene that discusses the origins of the sonic screwdriver is turned into a funny exchange. The chemistry between Rose and The Doctor is wonderfully re-established and it feels entirely organic.

“The Doctor Dances” is a perfect episode of Doctor Who that does not feel like it is rich in character, but it builds the characters of The Doctor, Rose, and Jack Harkness in a compelling way. Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston have amazing on-screen chemistry in “The Doctor Dances.” What is truly impressive is how John Barrowman fits into their couple with a similar energy that is fun to watch and does not seem at all distracting or improbable (i.e. Rose’s attraction to Harkness seems like it could lead her legitimately away from The Doctor). All of the guest stars are good as well.

What is arguably the most impressive aspect of “The Doctor Dances” (outside the direction by James Hawes that captures the fancy footwork of The Doctor and Rose at the episode’s climax) is how the episode is entirely rewatchable because it quickly departs from the mystery format that build “The Empty Child.” Instead, the answers to the mystery that was unresolved in “The Empty Child” come quickly and the rest of the episode is spent on dealing with the cause of the creepy legion of undead mutated people and how all the various pieces might be altered to solve the resulting problem. “The Doctor Dances” is smart, tight television and it leaves the viewer satisfied that they have just watched something intelligent and enduring because they have.

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

10/10

For check out how this episode stacks up against other Doctor Who episodes by visiting my Doctor Who Review Index Page where the episodes and seasons are organized from best to worst!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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“Are You My Mummy?” Terror Comes To Doctor Who In “The Empty Child!”

The Good: Charming lines, Creepy mood, Engaging plot
The Bad: Erratic special effects, Light on character development for the primary characters.
The Basics: Steven Moffat and James Hawes bring a creepy adversary and an energetic new hero to the Doctor Who universe with “The Empty Child!”


When my wife (and I) got into Doctor Who one of the things she did not know about the show was how frequently it would play to creepy or outright scary. One of the most instantly creepy episodes of the entire franchise is “The Empty Child.” “The Empty Child” is a time travel episode that puts The Doctor and Rose on Earth during World War II. Anyone who has seen “The Empty Child” is likely to instantly recognize the phrase “Are you my Mummy?” as a source of creepiness.

“The Empty Child” is a significant episode in the Doctor Who mythos and in television history as the first episode that features Captain Jack Harkness. Harkness would go on to be the protagonist of Torchwood. Played by John Barrowman, Harkness is the sexually-fluid, charming character who is able to hold his own against The Doctor and seems like the reasonable subject of a spin-off.

Latching onto an alien object when the TARDIS gets a Mauve Alert (which The Doctor informs Rose is the universal sign for emergencies), the TARDIS arrives in World War II London. Despite Rose begging The Doctor for “some Spock” (scanning for alien tech), The Doctor goes into a nightclub to find if anyone has heard a loud crash and seen an object falling from the sky. Leaving the club, while Rose tries to rescue a gas mask-clad child standing on a nearby rooftop, The Doctor is baffled when the TARDIS actually begins ringing . . . like a police box with a telephone. With Rose climbing on a rope to a German zeppelin and getting carried away, The Doctor follows a woman into another person’s house during an air raid.

Rescued by the enigmatic Captain Jack Harkness, Rose finds herself saved from almost certain death when she falls from the rope. Harkness uses a tractor beam and his computer recognizes Rose’s cell phone so it quickly becomes obvious to both people that neither is native to 1941 London. While The Doctor meets with orphans (and their benefactor) who dine in the homes of those who are forced into their shelters by the bomb sirens, Rose is charmed by Harkness. Harkness uses psychic paper (like The Doctor) and believes that Rose is a Time Agent. After Harkness heals Rose using nanobots that are thick in the air near his invisible ship, The Doctor hunts for the object that fell to Earth about a month before he and Rose arrived. Harkness claims that the object is a fallen Chula warship and he tries to negotiate with Rose for a price of the warship he salvaged. After asking about the object, The Doctor finds himself at the hospital in the presence of Doctor Constantine . . . and dozens of unconscious patients all of whom have identical injuries and gas masks fused to their faces!

“The Empty Child” is very much a British show; set in 1941 London, the episode stops dead long enough for The Doctor to express appreciation to Nancy (the young woman who is looking after the orphans and who tells The Doctor she lost a brother a month prior when the object fell from the sky) about British resilience in the face of Hitler’s advance. There is actually no real reason for The Doctor to praise how the British took a stand against Nazi Germany. While one might want to look at this as a truly revelatory moment (The Doctor is over 900 years old and of all the examples in the galaxy, he praises the British for their capacity for resistance), it is very ethnocentric; while the British have much to be praised for in terms of resilience to the Nazis, the Russians did quite a bit more.

Captain Harkness is a very cool character. In “The Empty Child,” he is characterized as a con man. Harkness admits fairly quickly that he is a con man. He is trying to sell an ambulance as a warship and when he is exposed by The Doctor, he is actually surprisingly honest.

“The Empty Child” is creepy as hell, though. The little child who wears a gas mask and coos “Are you my mummy?” is echoed by the dozens of undead people in Doctor Constantine’s office. The result, which comes after a bit of build-up with the single empty child, is terrifying. This is arguably one of the creepiest antagonists ever produced on Doctor Who.

While “The Empty Child” has wonderful performances all the way around – John Barrowman is a scene stealer as Harkness, Billie Piper has great on-screen chemistry with both him and Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor – it is fairly light on character development. This is a very plot-based episode of Doctor Who and it works very hard to build the premise of the mystery of what is going on in the streets of 1941 London. Like all wonderful mysteries that have two parts (as “The Empty Child” is the first of a two-part episode), this episode actually contains all the clues one needs to discern the cause of the medical mystery it has built. Despite all of the horror aspects to the episode, it is very much a mystery episode. It does not, however, contain any real character revelations to it. In fact, the closest we get to character development in “The Empty Child” is Rose begrudging The Doctor the fact that he never scans for alien technology when they arrive on Earth for one of their adventures.

“The Empty Child” has unfortunately erratic special effects. While the morph with Doctor Contantine near the episode’s climax is creepy and well-executed, the sequence with Rose near the beginning is actually a terrible bluescreen shot.

Ultimately, “The Empty Child” is a wonderfully horrifying episode that gives viewers chills each and every time one watches it. It’s entertaining television, but not flawless.

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

6.5/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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