Finish High: The Ninth Doctor Goes Out With A Bang In “The Parting Of The Ways!”

The Good: Wonderful acting, Great moments of character, Good tone, Decent effects, Cool villain moments
The Bad: None, really.
The Basics: Peaking with Rose reaching her heroic destiny (for now), “The Parting Of The Ways” sees the Ninth Doctor squaring off against the ultimate Dalek fleet!


Season finales have a big place in my heart and for the new Doctor Who, the “first” season finale – the finale that saw the climax of the character journey for the Ninth Doctor – created a standard that was hard to top. “The Parting Of The Ways” did exactly what a great season finale ought to do, which was bring the season together and conclude it in an engaging way that made the viewer want more. Taking obscure elements like the extrapolator acquired in “Boom Town” (reviewed here!), “The Parting Of The Ways” picks up immediately after “Bad Wolf” (reviewed here!) and it becomes one of the most memorable season finales in science fiction history.

Watching and rewatching “The Parting Of The Ways” made me realize that there are incredibly few amazing season finales that actually feature truly grand battles. Even Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “A Call To Arms” (reviewed here!) was much more about the build-up to invasion than it was about a tremendous battle. “The Parting Of The Ways” is similar, though it does contain an incredible battle. But, like other impressive conflict shows, “The Parting Of The Ways” features an important ethical dilemma and has some surprises that are chilling time and time again. That makes the episode far more than just a conclusion to one season and a tease for the next; “The Parting Of The Ways” is an incredible hour of television that makes a larger statement . . . and it is a compelling one.

Opening with the Ninth Doctor rescuing Rose by transporting the TARDIS onto the Dalek mothership, The Doctor learns that the Daleks managed to survive the Great Time War through the intervention of the Dalek Emperor. The Dalek Emperor managed to harvest the dregs and lost members of humanity for their genetic material to create the new race of Daleks. The Doctor reasons that the Daleks (now made of pulped human DNA) loathe their own impurity and that makes them more dangerous than the Daleks ever were before. Returning to Satellite Five, The Doctor realizes that he can destroy the Dalek fleet using a Delta Wave . . . but it will take him days to build the weapon and the fleet is only twenty-two minutes away. After Harkness sets up a shield that will protect Satellite Five from the Dalek ships (and force them into making an assault by invading the satellite), he leaves The Doctor and Rose to rally the humans below Level 500 to try to hold off the impending Dalek invasion.

As the Delta Wave generator nears completion, The Doctor tricks Rose into getting into the TARDIS and he sends her back to her native time period. The Dalek Emperor, who has minted himself as the god of all Daleks, reveals that he knows The Doctor’s plan and is surprised when Harkness backs The Doctor’s plan to destroy the Dalek fleet even if it means wiping out all life on Earth (as the Delta Wave can be executed, but not sufficiently targeted in time). As Satellite Five is invaded by the Daleks and the humans who are willing to fight in the bleak future make a last stand, 200,000 years in the past, Rose Tyler unravels the mystery of Bad Wolf and works to make direct contact with the TARDIS to save humanity on her own terms.

“The Parting Of The Ways” is one of those amazing episodes of television that grows on the viewer with each viewing. Conflicts or concepts that do not quite gel in the first viewing are better explained through seeing the show multiple times. Chief among these is Rose Tyler’s Bad Wolf leap. When Rose Tyler looks into the heart of the TARDIS, so many things that were unresolved or minimally explained can be justified. In simpler terms, any issue one might have with the way Rose Tyler reasons out how the Bad Wolf graffiti is a message that she should go back to the future can easily be justified or explained away through the temporal influence that give her: at the moment Rose has the epiphany, the Bad Wolf is giving her the specific epiphany she needs. It’s pretty cool when the effects precede the cause, but “The Parting Of The Ways” does that very well.

The episode also does a decent job of continuing both the love between the Ninth Doctor and his dalliance with Lynda, who was introduced in the prior episode. Lynda drew The Doctor’s eye and even though “The Parting Of The Ways” has some of the purest moments of emotional connection between Rose Tyler and The Doctor, The Doctor still seems willing to run off with Lynda.

What sells all of the undertones (more than a soundtrack that builds to an emotional crescendo throughout the episode) is the episode’s climax and the performances in it. When The Doctor must choose between being coward or killer as he is set up to be the great exterminator in the wake of the Daleks decimating Earth, Christopher Eccleston gives his most impressive and deep performance as The Ninth Doctor. Eccleston goes through virtually every emotion in his performance in the last ten minutes of the episode and he is masterful in doing so.

In a similar fashion, Billie Piper connects with Eccleston like a complete professional. Her role in “The Parting Of The Ways” is easy to empathize with and she gets through some of the philosophical technobabble exceptionally well. The connection between Piper and Eccleston is amazing onscreen in “The Parting Of The Ways” and the episode manages to be big and intimate at the same time. The episode cements the Ninth Doctor as one of science fiction’s greatest, most complicated, intriguing heroes. That makes “The Parting Of The Ways” essential viewing for fans of science fiction or just great television.

[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!]

For other season finales, be sure to visit my reviews of:
“The Beginning Of The End” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
“Learning Curve” - Star Trek: Voyager
“Gethsemane” - The X-Files

10/10

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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Setting The Stage For Destruction: “Bad Wolf” Is Plot-Heavy, But Cool!

The Good: Excellent continuity, Clever plot development, Performances
The Bad: Very light on character development
The Basics: The Doctor’s affections for Rose are diluted in “Bad Wolf” as the TARDIS crew is separated from one another and put into various television shows in the distant future.


For all the Whovians (Doctor Who fans) who like to play up the love between the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler, rewatching the series has a number of wake-up calls. I like The Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler, but objectively watching the series, there are frequent discrepancies between the ideal fans have for the show and what is actually in the program. Nowhere is fan denial of the on-screen truths greater than in “Bad Wolf,” the penultimate episode of the first season of the new Doctor Who series. For all those who love to claim that The Doctor has an intense and deep love for Rose Tyler, they seem to forget that in “Bad Wolf,” The Doctor picks up a new Companion in a virtually identical way to how he picks up Rose Tyler in “Rose” (reviewed here!). When The Doctor rescues Lynda, there is all the potential (and intent) that she would accompany The Doctor much like Rose did.

“Bad Wolf” is a follow-up to “The Long Game” (reviewed here!) and it pits The Doctor, Rose Tyler, and Jack Harkness against the Bad Wolf Corporation in Earth’s distant future. The episode also reaffirms that time is malleable in a way that allows Doctor Who to progress without any sense of continuity. The Doctor recalls several things that are unrealized in the first season of Doctor Who. While Harriet Jones’s brief arc is redefined in the next season, in “The Long Game” and “Bad Wolf,” The Doctor is plagued by memories of The Fourth Great And Bountiful Human Empire. The Fourth Great And Bountiful Human Empire was supposed to exist in Earth’s distant future, but its rise was disrupted by the Jagrofess and the building of Satellite Five. Satellite Five essentially enslaved Earth without its knowledge and in “Bad Wolf” the manipulations of those controlling Satellite Five are finally revealed. The episode also sets up the first season finale exceptionally well.

One hundred years after The Doctor killed the Jagrofess and liberated humans from the influence of Satellite Five, The Doctor awakens in a staging room for the Big Brother house that has three other occupants. Members of the reality television series are surprised by The Doctor’s appearance, as are the show’s controllers outside the room. Also suffering from mild amnesia is Rose Tyler who awakens on another set to find she is a part of The Weakest Link which is hosted by the Anne-Droid, a maniacal robot who asks trivia questions and (much to Rose’s horror) disintegrates those voted off the program. Similarly, Captain Jack Harkness awakens in the company of two robots who try to give him fashion makeovers, starting by dissolving his clothes.

The Doctor quickly realizes that whomever managed to abduct him and his crew from the TARDIS in the past, is exceptionally powerful and wants him alive. So, he vandalizes the Big Brother house, rescues Lynda from it and goes in search of the show’s controllers. The Doctor realizes that they are all on Satellite Five (though it is no longer called that) as Rose struggles to survive in The Weakest Link. At the same time, Jack breaks out of his televised “prison” and Lynda tells The Doctor that when the news channels went black a hundred years prior, Earth became a hellhole that was easily controlled by the reality programming that soon started streaming from the Game Station thanks to the Bad Wolf Corporation. As the trio rushes to rescue Rose from the finals of The Weakest Link, The Doctor is traumatized when he sees her disintegrated by the Anne-Droid. But Harkness realizes that the disintegration beam was actually a teleporter and in finding Rose, The Doctor, Lynda and Jack discover who has been manipulating the human race for hundreds of years!

Outside the climax of the episode, when The Doctor vows to rescue Rose Tyler at all costs, “Bad Wolf” is generally light on character and it actually has The Doctor separated from Rose. Without Rose, The Doctor latches onto the nearest woman in whom he sees potential and Lynda seems to represent that to him. The Doctor flirts with Lynda and reaches for her hand the way he reached for Rose’s at the beginning of the season. At the other end of the emotional spectrum, the character of The Doctor has a wonderful moment, compliments of Lynda, where he realizes that he is responsible for the downfall of Earth. The Doctor’s entire way of living is called into question and, for a moment (at least), it actually shakes him. The Doctor is unsettled until he sees who is behind manipulating the human race and when he resolves to rescue Rose, his strength is impressive. That moment illustrates the love that the fans so tout.

The acting in “Bad Wolf” is good, though both leads go through the exact same emotional journey. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper laugh off their character’s predicaments until they discover the lethal consequences of the games in which they are participating. How The Doctor and Rose go from jocular to serious and afraid plays off only because Eccleston and Piper have exceptional range.

“Bad Wolf” is a great example of what Doctor Who can do best: the episode starts as goofy and transitions into something serious, smart, and somewhat menacing. The idea that humanity has been manipulated through television by an alien force is an interesting one and it is well-executed in “Bad Wolf.” The idea that episodes like “The Long Game” have serious consequences to the psyche of The Doctor is an engaging one as well. That The Doctor’s somewhat flighty way could lead his protected species to harm is one that grounds the character in a way that the sometimes goofy incarnation of The Doctor fails to connect.

Ultimately, “Bad Wolf” is a set-up episode for the first season finale and it is a fractured lead-in to the climactic finale. It’s worth the investment, but it is not a truly remarkable episode on its own.

[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!]

For other penultimate episodes of shows that are truly just set-ups for the finales, please visit my reviews of:
“In The Cards” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Ragtag” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
“Life Matters” - True Blood

8.5/10

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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On Its Own, “Boom Town” Is Subtle Doctor Who!

The Good: Good mood, Decent acting, Moments of character
The Bad: Light on plot
The Basics: “Boom Town” sees the return of the Slitheen for a somewhat comical episode of Doctor Who that nets an important device leading into the first season finale.


Sometimes, there are better episodes of television in the context of the season or series they are a part of, as opposed to on their own. In Doctor Who, there are several episodes that have essential aspects in the larger context of the seasonlong arc that are somewhat unremarkable episodes. “Boom Town” is one of those episodes. Just like “Rules Of Acquisition” (reviewed here!) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had the appearance of being an unassuming Ferengi episode of little consequence, but was the first mention of The Dominion and essential for that, “Boom Town” is actually essential to both Doctor Who and Torchwood. In addition to referencing the Cardiff rift that was first mentioned in “The Unquiet Dead” (reviewed here!), “Boom Town” reveals the Heart Of The TARDIS and the tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator (the pan-dimensional surfboard), both of which are incredibly important in the season one finale and beyond. These little details actually make “Boom Town” an essential Doctor Who episode, masquerading as a bottle episode.

What “Boom Town” does exceptionally well is make an apparently mundane episode with a very limited plot into an episode packed with character elements that truly develop the four main characters who are presented in the episode. The Doctor is illustrated to be an intensely ethical and incredibly morally-complex character in “Boom Town.” Captain Jack Harkness’s character is developed further as he is revealed to be a natural leader. In fact, his reasoning and tactical skills are so ingrained that he has to be stopped in order to defer to The Doctor (and why he actually defers to The Doctor is something of a mystery). Rose, whose love for The Doctor seems to be obvious at this point and who has gotten some reciprocation on that affection, tries her best to reconnect with Mickey and discovers that avenue truly is closed to her. Mickey, for his part, becomes a more viable character in “Boom Town” by revealing that he is not just waiting around for Rose and he is actually hurt by the way she has abandoned him to fly off into time and space with The Doctor.

Six months after the Slitheen attempted to invade Earth, one of the inspectors from London arrives in Cardiff to try to warn the new Lord Mayor of Cardiff about problems with the planned nuclear power plant in Cardiff. Mr. Cleaver lets Lord Mayor Margaret know about the issues with the Blaidd Drwg nuclear power plant project and she reveals herself to be a Slitheen when she kills him. Shortly thereafter, The Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack Harkness arrive in Cardiff where they intend to recharge the TARDIS using energy from the rift that runs below the city. While Mickey reconnects with the group (and is jealous of Jack), The Doctor sees a picture of Margaret in the local paper and the team goes to capture her. After foiling Margaret’s escape attempt, Harkness and The Doctor realize that the Slitheen is in possession of a pan-dimensional surfboard, which will allow her to escape Earth after the Blaidd Drwg nuclear plant explodes and frees the energy from the Cardiff rift.

Margaret reveals that the Slitheen have been tried in abstention on Raxacoricofallapatorius and that she faces the death sentence should The Doctor actually extradite her there. While Rose and Mickey begin to reconnect (until Mickey reveals he is dating another young woman from the shop Rose used to work at), The Doctor grants Blond’s (Margaret’s Slitheen identity) last wish, for a meal out. After she tries multiple times to kill The Doctor, she tries to explain to him how horrible the death penalty is on Raxacoricofallapatorius. When Blond erupts the rift to attempt to escape, The Doctor must decide whether to stop her and condemn her to death or give her the chance to choose to reform and accept the consequences of her previous actions.

“Boom Town” is a follow up to the two-part “Aliens Of London” (reviewed here!) and “World War Three” (reviewed here!), but it stands on its own fairly well even for those who might not have seen those two episodes. The return of the Slitheen Margaret seems to largely be to present the emotional and ethical dilemma that The Doctor faces in “Boom Town” as opposed to anything innately cool about the Slitheen or Margaret. Even so, the use of Margaret makes for better continuity and provides a minor emotional tether to earlier episodes.

The ethical dilemma in “Boom Town” is a fairly common one in science fiction. The Star Trek franchise has done many episodes where the question of extraditing a prisoner, knowing they will be killed, brainwashed or otherwise altered motivates the protagonists to rethink doing the legally-mandated thing. “Boom Town” asks similar questions well by taking an unlikable antagonist whose quest to destroy the Earth for profit was barely foiled and slowly making her sympathetic. Even after Blond kills Mr. Cleaver, she spares the life of Cathy, a reporter who is digging into the story of the Blaidd Drwg nuclear plant’s “curse.” Even though both The Doctor and Blond minimize that act of compassion, it is still an act of compassion and cultural contamination that has developed from Blond wearing her Margaret Blain skinsuit for too long.

The acting in “Boom Town” is fine, with the best performances coming from guest stars Noel Clarke and Annette Badland. Clarke presents Mickey with an undertone of anger that makes Mickey seem both very real and suddenly potentially menacing. For moments, it seems like Mickey could become an antagonist and Clarke does a good job of making the usually milquetoast Mickey into an edgier character. Similarly, Badland takes a character who has largely been used as comic relief and makes her into an articulate, emotionally-realized alien. For all those who complain about how lame the Slitheen costumes were, there is a moment when the rubber-suit alien emotes well and the voiceover from Badland sells the moment.

“Boom Town” also finally makes explicit the quiet menace that has been building the entire season of “Bad Wolf.” Of course, that is a prime example of something within the episode that works far, far better in the context of the entire first season than on its own. In “Boom Town,” The Doctor shrugs and dismisses “Bad Wolf” after he notices it and Rose seems troubled by it; that thread is picked up in the finale, though and that helps make the season’s climax come from a more ordered place than seem like a random leap.

Ultimately, “Boom Town” is entertaining, but simple and it works far better as a thread in the larger tapestry of Doctor Who than on its own.

For other works with somewhat ridiculous invaders, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The World’s End
“False Profits” - Star Trek: Voyager
“Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” - The X-Files

[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!]

8/10

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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“I, Borg” For Doctor Who? The Inevitable Return Of The “Dalek” Tries For Something Substantive!

The Good: Character development, Plot progression, Impressive acting (especially by Christopher Eccleston)
The Bad: Thematically heavy-handed in context
The Basics: “Dalek” restores a single villainous adversary to the Doctor Who universe . . . with powerful results for The Doctor and Rose.


In Star Trek: The Next Generation, one of the most compelling character arcs involved Captain Jean-Luc Picard wrestling with the consequences of his abduction by the villainous Borg. In one of the few serialized elements of the largely episodic series, Picard’s emotional confrontation with a single Borg was explored in a popular and powerful episode called “I, Borg” (reviewed here!). It is tough for genre fans not to make a comparison between “I, Borg” and the Doctor Who episode “Dalek.”

For those not hip on Doctor Who, the most popular, powerful, recurring villains are the Daleks. The 2006 Doctor Who reboot was set following the end of the Great Time War, which was alluded to in bits and pieces throughout the first five episodes. In “Dalek,” the conflict is made a bit more explicit as The Doctor is forced to wrestle with the consequences of his actions that resolved the Great Time War. Unfortunately, The Doctor was responsible for the genocide of the entire race that fought the Time Lords. The Doctor was the last surviving Time Lord, but in ending the Great Time War, he supposedly destroyed each and every Dalek in existence. In “Dalek,” The Doctor finds out that he is not the only survivor of the Great Time War: there is a single Dalek alive as well!

The TARDIS is drawn off course to 2012 Utah where The Doctor and Rose find themselves in a subterranean museum. The facility is packed with artifacts that are all related to The Doctor’s prior adventures and experiences (like a stuffed Slitheen arm and a Cyberman head). The museum’s owner is Henry Van Stanton, who promptly captures The Doctor and Rose. Van Stanton is keen on information on his one living specimen in his collection, a creature he calls a Metaltron and that has life readings inside its metal shell. The creature is a Dalek and despite the Doctor’s initial fear of it, he is delighted when it turns out the Dalek is powerless and unable to harm him. Revealing the nature of the Daleks to Van Stanton, Henry Van Stanton realizes that The Doctor is not human.

With The Doctor captured, Rose – who has befriended Van Stanton’s genius assistant, Adam Mitchell – witnesses the Dalek being tortured. Feeling compassion for the creature, Rose breaks into the chamber that houses the Dalek and, as it appears to die, she reaches out and touches its metal housing. That allows the Dalek to extrapolate her DNA and regenerate its organic component. Repaired and absorbing the whole of human knowledge from the internet, the Dalek goes on a killing spree and menaces the entire facility. To prevent the Dalek from killing everyone, Rose and The Doctor use captured alien technology to slow the Dalek down. In the ensuing combat, The Doctor puts Rose in mortal peril and together they work to keep the menace contained to the facility.

The emotional punch of “Dalek” comes at the episode’s outset and climax, with a long stretch in between where the episode degenerates into a firefight between Van Stanton’s forces and the Dalek. The initial reactions of The Doctor when confronted with the Dalek takes the character through the entire emotional range and it’s an impressive acting exercise for Christopher Eccleston. Realistically, Eccleston portrays The Doctor as horrified, then euphoric, then angry and the transitions hardly seem erratic as they would from a lesser actor. When The Doctor witnesses the might of the Dalek, Eccleston’s portrayal of utter shock is incredible.

“Dalek” features decent transitions between the action-packed portions and the philosophical elements. Despite the somewhat abrupt initial transition from a very conversation-realistic (if not heavy) episode to an extended chase sequence that is light on dialogue and heavy on gunplay. But then, Doctor Who fans and those who like good television have reason to rejoice; “Dalek” turns philosophical with The Doctor actually talking with the Dalek. When Stanton’s people are unable to keep the bulkheads in the bunker open, the episode utilizes the opportunity to have The Doctor go on a moralistic tirade. It’s refreshing to watch science fiction that has a philosophical component and watching both The Doctor and Rose debate with the confused Dalek is intriguing and interesting to watch.

The episode, however, is a little more problematic in context. “Dalek” is episode six and three of the five adversaries from those episodes have identical motivations. The villain in “The End Of The World” (reviewed here!) and in the Slitheen arc are both after profit. Greed is a motivation for villains, but so far it’s the motivation for all the big villains and with Henry Van Stanton being motivated by profit motive, too, the theme is getting pretty stale by this point. That said, within the episode, the theme works wonderfully. Van Stanton’s greed is a foil to the Dalek, which wants nothing other than to exert its superiority over all other life forms, and because it cannot be bribed, only a philosophical battle makes sense for resolving the conflict.

Amid the philosophy and character journey for The Doctor, one which is intended to bring him some sense of peace following the issues that brought him to Earth at the outset of the series, the relationship between The Doctor and Rose Tyler deepens. This episode marks a departure from the usual flirting between The Doctor and Rose and instead it gives them a chance to explore something more intense. After Rose flirts with Adam, she tries to absolve The Doctor of his guilt when she is convinced she will be killed by the Dalek. That moment is an intense bonding moment that cements their relationship in a way that the prior episodes have only been building to. That an emotionless Dalek can recognize The Doctor’s love for Rose pretty much codifies the implicit romance between them.

On the design front, “Dalek” makes an intriguing implicit statement about the relationship between the Time Lords and Daleks. The Daleks are designed with a color scheme and metal balls that are similar to the interior of the TARDIS. That the two opposing races are so, apparently, intertwined, seems to imply that the Daleks and Time Lords are really only philosophically different and in their technological focus (destruction vs. exploration).

“Dalek” is not quite on the philosophical level of “I, Borg,” though it makes a powerful statement and is a solidly entertaining hour of television. This is one of the more impressive conceptual episodes of Doctor Who that actually pushes forward the characters as opposed to working hard to sell a convoluted plot or audacious theme. The Doctor is a fun and interesting character, but the conflict in this episode does not quite reach a philosophical peak that one might hope for (Rose actually has one of the biggest epiphanic moments).

[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!]

For other works with Corey Johnson, please visit my reviews of:
X-Men: First Class
Kick-Ass
Hellboy
The Mummy

9/10

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

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