Doctor Who Project - "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways"

And here we go the first series finale in the new series era and the team find themselves waking up in futuristic versions of current TV programmes: The Doctor in Big Brother, Rose in The Weakest Link and Jack in What Not to Wear only something's different  (aside from the robot programme hosts), these are TV shows where the winner gets to live!

There's also something else that's familiar, the Gamestation itself. We've seen it before and The Doctor knows he's been there before it's Satellite 5.

The Doctor escapes the Big Brother House with his fellow housemate Lynda with a Y (aka Tanya with a Y from Eastenders) whereas Jack escapes his programme by using a well hidden mini gun - not going to guess exactly where it was hidden. Rose however isn't so lucky and gets shot by the Anne-droid after losing out in the final of The Weakest Link. However as we find out later Rose isn't dead, she's merely been transported (What confuses me about this is how the Anne-droid manages to clearly destroy the Daleks later on and not transport them?) to the Dalek mothership.

Saving Rose by landing the TARDIS around her he then sends her back to 2005 whilst he and Jack work on a bomb that will destroy everything living within the area. Not content with being left out of proceedings Rose tries her best to think of a way to return, figures out that Bad Wolf is a clue and decides that staring into the heart of the TARDIS would  be a good idea. Hang on a min didn't the last person to try this revert back to being an egg?! Far from turning Rose into a 5ft egg the TARDIS gives Rose super powers complete with glowing eyes kinda like how Jean Grey turns into the Phoenix in X-Men. Rose aka The Phoenix then goes onto destroy the Dalek empire and save the day but of course people shouldn't look into the heart of the TARDIS and it's killing her. The Doctor being the guy he is absorbs all the energy from Rose, being a Time Lord won't save him from death though but of course The Doctor has a little trick up his sleeve regeneration and it's the first regeneration of the new series. This also means the end of the 9th Doctor which is a shame because I love Eccleston's Doctor and I feel given another series or 2 he would be just as loved as Tennant, Baker, Davison et al. In his own words  he was 'fantastic'.

This series finale will mostly be remembered for the 9th-10th regeneration (as well as being the first series finale of the New Who era) but it can also be remembered for being a half decent series finale too. Unlike the series finales to come it's not a big sprawling epic that has to be bigger and better than the previous one (although to be fair there is no previous series finale in the new era) and that's why I like these 2 episodes. Fantastic!

Doctor Who Project - "Boom Town"

Continuing the hit and miss theme for this series we've had a great episode so therefore we must follow it with dross. And dross we get with the return of the Slitheen. Really RTD do we really need to see Slitheens again?! Ok we only get one survivor from 'World War Three' in the form of Blon but it's enough.

The TARDIS crew find themselves in Cardiff (again, this time in modern day) in need of a quick fuel stop using the rift (that we last saw in The 'Unquiet Dead') to charge the TARDIS. Hmm Cardiff, rift, Captain Jack I smell a spinoff. Whilst they're in town Rose invites Mickey to come join them and it's when they're all together that they spot a familiar face on the front of the Western Mail (also familiar to me having spent my university years in Wales), good old Blon Slitheen, the new mayor of Cardiff.

This episode is pretty much filler but does serve an important purpose in the overall series story arc. Firstly it flags up the words Bad Wolf for all that had missed them in earlier episodes with The Doctor saying he's heard those words before and that they've been following him. Secondly we see the heart of the TARDIS.

Long story short, not a fan of this episode but it is better than the last time we saw the Slitheen and best of all RTD kills them off as Blon reverts back to being an egg after staring into the heart of the TARDIS meaning that she'll get the chance to re-live her life and hopefully grow up to be a better person well a better Raxacoricofallapatorian at least.

And it's whilst dropping off the newly re-born egg at Raxacoricofallapatorius that The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack find themselves in a familiar place.....

Doctor Who Project "Dalek"

Here it is. They couldn't bring back Doctor Who without him running into his old nemesis at some point during the series. The funny thing is the good Doctor actually comes face to face with another adversary before being reunited with an evil pepper pot. No I don't mean the stuffed Slitheen arm. I'm  referring to the Cyberman head in Van Statten's space museum (Ooh we've been here before haven't we? William Hartnell anyone?).  Best of all it's a real Cyberman ala The Invasion onwards not one of these parallel universe, Trigger from Only Fools & Horses designed Cybermen (Oh wait those haven't happened yet - spoilers). A nice little nod to the classic series there.

It's not long before The Doctor and Rose are surrounded by security guards and after showing off his musical skills The Doctor is invited to have a look at Van Statten's prize exhibit (in order for him to coax it into speaking). And because The Doctor is such an expert it doesn't take him long to do so. Well actually because it's The Doctor he stumbles into the situation, announcing his name to his greatest enemy which of course arouses it, cue "exterminate, exterminate (squee)". However this Dalek is a bit FUBAR'd having fallen out of space and time, left to rot for at least 50 years then routinely tortured. Only fair that Rose should land a hand and in a fashion we will come to expect in the RTD era here comes some mumbo jumbo explanation although as far as that goes it's not too far fetched. I mean it's hardly magic potions to bring back dead characters!

And with a little help from a time traveller the Dalek comes back to life, regenerates itself (after suckering a guard to death! To be fair he did ask for it.) and then kicks arse. One Dalek verses the world and if the Doctor wasn't around you know it would win too. It's funny actually because The Doctor doesn't really do much to resolve the problem other than shout out stats and wave a big gun at the Dalek (so much for him showing mercy). It's really up to Rose to save the day and she does so in the best possible way by reasoning with the Dalek. Without the special connection made by her touching the Dalek though she would've been toast the second Todd from Coronation Street left her behind. No real Dalek would've let her try to talk her way out of it, they would've exterminated her on the spot but this is a touchy feeling 'modern' Dalek having been mutated by Rose's DNA.

I love how this episode demonstrates just how bad ass Daleks are (especially when they're not reliant on Davros!!), I mean just one Dalek takes down a whole military base. The whole electrocution scene just shows how intelligent and ruthless they are. I also love how parallels are drawn between The Doctor and his mortal enemy, last of their species, alone in the world and have no qualms in killing the other. After all the Dalek remarks that The Doctor 'would make an excellent Dalek'.

One last thing that I love about this episode is that it finally puts to rest all the jokes about Daleks being defeated by a flight of stairs (although Remembrance of the Daleks did the same thing 17 years earlier). Just a shame that RTD has a thing for spectacular series endings, oh well that's yet to come.

PS spotted the Bad Wolf (it's the helicopter coming in to land) in this episode.

Doctor Who Project - "Aliens of London/World War Three"

I've made no secret of the fact that I have not been looking forward to watching this two parter (mostly because of the awful Slitheen) and as such I've been putting off my review. I'm even procrastinating now by watching videos on YouTube instead of writing this! Ok gonna knuckle down and get through this even if I keep it short and sweet or it takes me hours to write it.

Like the other episodes I've seen so far this has fared better 2nd (or is it 3rd or 4th? Poss more?) time around. They're not a patch on the previous 3 episodes but I knew that coming into it and as such I guess my expectations were lowered because I honestly didn't think these episodes were as bad as I remembered. Ok the Slitheen are still crap. They look awful, the fart jokes are cringeworthy and their whole reason for being on Earth is just stupid. What saves this story however is the Doctor and Rose's performances as well as the introduction of Harriet Jones and of course RTD's exploration of how the human race would cope with an alien invasion (turn to weapons and then pass it off as a hoax afterwards appears to be the answer). Oh and then there's Rose's Mum Jackie grilling the Doctor over the phone, asking if Rose is safe travelling with the Doctor. The Doctor's expression and the fact that he never really answers the question speaks volumes especially for any viewers of the classic series (as well as possibly being foreboding?).

Overall the two episodes were very meh. The Slitheens are very forgettable and luckily they only really pop up once more before finding their home in The Sarah-Jane Adventures. Two things that I found myself thinking during this story were "save the clock tower" when Big Ben is hit during the crash landing and are Mickey and Jackie going to get it on? Honestly the sexual tension between those two in Mickey's flat is unbelievable, you know if this wasn't a family programme they would have got it on!

Doctor Who Project - "The Unquiet Dead"

After a great start to the series, Doctor Who shifts gears with a time travelling episode into the past. Of course older viewers will be familiar with The Doctor's inability to get the TARDIS to where he wanted to go  (or as the TARDIS says in Neil Gaiman's wonderful episode 'The Doctor's Wife, "I always took you where you needed to go. ") with The Doctor and Rose ending up 9 years and several thousand miles away from 1860 Naples, 1869 Cardiff to be precise where they encounter animated corpses, Charles Dickens and Gwen from Torchwood (ok Eve Myles has actually played that part yet and the show does make a cheeky comment about her likeness to this character in a later episode.

I love how this story delves into the past like so many classic Doctor Who stories of the past (eg The Talons of Weng Chiang). I also love how it plays with the idea of using famous people from history (in this case Charles Dickens) and how this episode could be consider one of those hide behind the sofa moments as the Gelth cross over and start to invade bodies which turn on Rose and The Doctor.

Speaking of The Gelth they kinda remind me of The Vardans from 'The Invasion of Time' only looking a million times better (although the CGI Vardans on the DVD release don't look too bad). They also provide another glimpse at the time war and how it effect other beings. Oh and there's also the mention of Bad Wolf. I have to admit I completely missed all the clues on first viewing and have still missed them in the first 2 episodes but definitely caught this one this time around.

So all in all a great episode. Not looking forward to the next two though, The Slitheen were awful on first viewing nevermind repeat viewings.