The aliens of the last episode are revealed to be Slitheen and they have infiltrated the government in order to make the world believe that there are alien spaceships in orbit bristling with massive weapons of destruction (!) and a first nuclear strike is required to save the country and the world. There are no such spaceships of course, so what is going on? This is almost a stage farce with aliens, Doctors and assorted others running across the screen from room to room in hot pursuit of each other. It's all a bit silly, but great fun. Doctor Who passing sly comments upon the Iraq War and the claims about wMD? Whatever next? The scenes in which Rose and her mother are forced to come to terms with the danger of a life with the Doctor are quite touching and well-acted. This is another episode where the driving force is money. Is there a theme developing?
DALEK - first transmitted May 13th 2006
Yes, the one that we've all been waiting for and it is a cracker. The Tardis materialises deep in an underground museum that is home to a host of alien artifacts collected by a rich american. The Doctor is set to become its star exhibit until he finds out that it already has one, the last remaining dalek. Can the Doctor shut it down when it goes on the rampage and before it destroys all human life? Why hasn't it killed Rose outright when it kills everyone else? Ever thought that you'd cry for a dalek? Well, you just might and for the Doctor as well as we find out a little more about the passing of the time lord race, apparently in the same time war when the Doctor destroyed the entire dalek race, possibly taking his own with it. This insight into the character is priceless, as is the episode. DOCTOR WHO is just getting better and better.
THE LONG PLAY - first transmitted May 7th 2005
The Doctor, Rose and a young man they picked up from last week's show, arrive on a space station in the future through which all of the galaxy's news is filtered and which seems to be holding back the advancement of human civilisation. And why is it so hot? This is a more standard Doctor Who episode. There's something in the attic and it's controlling everything. It, disappointingly, turns out to be another amorphous blob (a la the Nestene Consciousness in ROSE), but with teeth this time. Simon Pegg has fun with the role of the editor and there are some funny comedy moments with the opening of people's foreheads. It is a measure of the new series that we can feel let down when an episode is only'really quite good'.
FATHER'S DAY - first transmitted May 14th 2005
The Doctor takes Rose back to the day that her father was killed so that she can be there to comfort him instead of letting him die alone. What she does, of course, is to save, irrevocably altering the time line. This summons up a horde of flying dragon beasties that will sterilise the wound in time by eating everybody. The Doctor can't think of a way out and Rose's dad turns out to be less than the hero her mother told stories about. Or is he? Despite being terrifically entertaining, FATHER'S DAY has a confused and bitty plot. How will a wound in time be sterilised by monsters eating all the people, surely they will have to eat the whole universe? How come Rose watching the accident the first time doesn't see herself interfering the second time? Why does only the exact bit of the past that they need to put things right keep being replayed. In a series about a time traveller, I would have hoped that a story about time travel paradoxes might have held together better. Still, it's fun seeing the Doctor beaten and eaten.
BOOM TOWN - first transmitted June 4th 2005
It is a measure of the confidence of the production team that with the first season not even over they feel that they can give us an episode that is almost completely given over to an examination of the characters. STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION didn't try that until Family in season 4. What plot there is revolves around the last of the Slitheen family (no, they didn't all get vaporised in World War III using new-found political power to build a power station in Cardiff that will wipe out the planet, but give her enough power to go home (or somewhere else, at least). The meat and drink of this episode, though, is an examination of the characters and motivations. Mrs Slitheen is a clever, erudite, manipulative woman (no wonder she makes such a good politician) and she is able to get under the skin of her captors and make them re-examine their lives and motivations. The Doctor is faced with his rootless existence and the many creatures he has killed, Rose is faced with the life and lover she has left behind and Captain Jack is faced with a TARDIS that proves to be the Deus Ex Machina that saves them all. Not the best episode and it feels almost like padding, but all was forgiven with the glimpse of next week's episode and a fleet of dalek warships.
BAD WOLF - first transmitted June 11th 2005
The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack are all kidnapped off the Tardis and appear in a series of TV shows being run on Satellite 5 100 years after the events of THE LONG GAME. Ths being the future, the shows are different. Being evicted from Big Brother means being evicted from life, an extreme makeover show means being made over in surgical terms and being The Weakest Link gets you more than a caustic telling off from the Anne-droid. Once out of their various life-threatening situations, the Doctor and Captain Jack attempt to save Rose and find out that Satellite 5 is transmitting thousands of channels of rubbish to a humanity locked in their homes because of environmental devastation which began when the news channels that were manipulating them were abruptly shut off. Faced with the realisation that he is responsible, the Doctor finds that his recent life has been manipulated with patience and evil dedication by his worst enemy. No, the daleks did survive the Time War, a whole fleet of them, and they are coming to Satellite 5. I'm still not sure what sort of a dalek plan would require the graffiti-ing of Bad Wolf onto the Tardis, but hopefully all will be revealed next week, not least whose voice was heard saying "They survived in me" when the Doctor asked how the daleks survived the Time Wars in next week's preview clips.
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS transmitted July 1st 2006
The dalek fleet is coming for satellite 5 and earth, Rose is a prisoner and there is no hope of success. Pretty much situation normal, but the Doctor has a plan. A delta wave will destroy the all the daleks within range and satellite 5 has the transmitting power. unfortunately, the wave will also kill all the humans on earth. Still, since these daleks have been created from mutated humans and now worship their emperor as a god, that is perhaps the better option. Still, at least Rose, newly rescued, is safe, having been sent back home. She isn't going to take lying down and breaks into the heart of the Tardis. Captain Jack is dead, the daleks have broken in and the Doctor is about to be exterminated. Is it the end? Not if Bad Wolf has anything to say about it. Going out in a blaze of...well, blazes, The Parting of the Ways kept up the generally high standard of the series without being a classic. The plot was excellent, but the pitched battle with the daleks turned out to be a damp squib, the emperor dalek was another dodgy special effect and the Doctor fails again and has to be rescued by external forces. This has been the one real weakness with an otherwise top notch series. Rose killed the Nestene consciousness, Gwyneth the maid saved them all in The Unquiet Dead and the Tardis has had to step in twice now to sort things out. Even Rose's father stepped in and saved the day. I know that the team was looking for strong female characters, but surely the Doctor should be the one that wins it sometimes. Still, that is a quibble. As for Bad Wolf being the force of the time vortex channelled through the Tardis and into Rose Tyler, spreading the words through time and space to remind herself to create herself in time to save humanity - huh? What's that about. Still, Saturday nights are going to be empty until the Christmas special The Christmas Invasion (rubbish title that). Chris has gone, Dave is here. The Doctor is dead, long live the Doctor.
