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 - "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.