Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 13 - Journey's End

Well, what a breathless end to the series! After three quick-fire months, we’ve finally arrived at ‘Journey's End’.

On the first watch, I was quite disappointed. There were just a couple of points that I thought we could have done without, I’ll go into them later though! After a rewatch later, I felt a little better, although those nagging points still nag like a woman on ‘that time of the month’!

It is this ‘Rose and Doctor’ thing. I CAN accept the Doctor falling in love but NOT with his fellow companions. Maybe it because his fellow travellers are now ‘companions’ instead of the classic ‘assistants’, that these love stories come from. Personally I reckon the 6th Doc was giving Peri one before Revelation of the Daleks but we’ll gloss over that (for now!). But if there is any suggestion that any ‘hanky panky’ is going on in the TARDIS, it should be kept as a suggestion. Yes, The Doctor that kissed Rose was human (with his heart in the side of his chest – eh?) but it still was The Doctor. I didn’t really like the second Tennant much anyway!

Another sticking point was the whole ‘Donna is a Timelord’ plot. Even though, scarily, she suited playing a Timelady, as soon as Catherine Tate opened her mouth and copied Tennant’s traits (speaking fast etc) I knew it was bad. Take nothing away from Catherine though, she was BRILLIANT as Donna Noble. Watching her departure was almost heartbreaking. I’m sorry for ever doubting you!

Another minor gripe was the lack of interaction between Rose and Mickey, now that she’ll never see him again. But despite his amount of screen time, I thought Noel Clarke was great. Hopefully the ending will leave it open for a regular slot in Torchwood, I hope so.

I also wasn’t really keen on the resolution of the cliffhanger. I believe that it should have been dragged out a bit more. Although I understand that the episode did have time constraints (well, sort of!) I was and still, suspicious of THAT RING on Donna’s finger. Basically, I thought the hand was going to regenerate into The Master! And to be honest that would have made a great episode. Can you imagine the bit when the TARDIS appeared and instead of Doctor 10.5 we had The Master stepping out? That would have been wonderful. Maybe with the ending, we have not seen the last of Donna and THAT RING!

Again the effects in this episode where simply breathtaking but who needs effects when you’ve got Bernard Cribbins? I hope I get a chance to meet him because the man is simply fantastic. Apart from the two Doctors, I reckon he is the best piece of casting that RTD and his team have made for Doctor Who.

I hope Julian Bleach will get another chance to play Davros again. The first thing you thought of, when you saw his ranting, was ‘that is f***ing scary! And that’s the point! He was wonderful.

Over great moments were – Jackie, Captain Jack, Sarah Jane and her interaction with Davros, the German Daleks, the whole team around the TARDIS console, Gwen and Ianto being locked in the Hub, thus stopping them from spoiling the episode and who can forget - K9!

Overall, a fine end to a great series. Shame about my gripes but you don’t have to agree with me! But I hope you do agree that this Christmas episode can’t come too soon! Cyberman AND Christmas. Dervla Kirwan AND David Morrissey, Goodnight Sweetheart meets Basic Instinct in Victorian times! Shame about the camp titles that came with it but hey, you can’t have everything!

8.5/10

Remember to keep tuning into this blog for more Sc-Fi and cult television reviews as well as reviews of the Big Finish audios and more news from the world of Doctor Who. Is it Christmas yet?

Christmas 2008 Teaser

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 12 - The Stolen Earth

Wow! Just Wow! I was not expecting that! With all the attention on the Daleks and Davros, we never expected the cliffhanger at the end. But more about that later!

From start to finish, this episode was just marvellous! We had a Who’s who of er Doctor Who! Rose, Martha, Sarah Jane, Jack, Gwen, Ianto, Luke, Francine, Mr Smith and even Harriett Jones! But it was Davros that was the main sticking point, at least during the episode.

He was done very well. Now played by Julian Bleach (the ‘Ghostmaker’ in Torchwood), Davros was terrifying as ever. The Daleks also got a chance to impress and really showed what they can do. Their last few episodes, just haven’t done them justice.

With the Earth being moved to the much-mentioned ‘Medusa Cascade’, with many other ‘stolen’ planets. The Doctor’s ‘secret army’ took up arms, pulled together by Harriett Jones (former Prime Minister). While The Doctor and Donna buggered off to the Shadow Proclamation, Bernard Cribbins, once again, stole the show! Whilst he was the most humorous of the lot, the rest of cast showed their great acting ability as well.

The Shadow Proclamation is a group of ‘outer space policeman’ with the Judoon, seemingly, being employed by them. Despite many people’s gripes, I thought it looked very good and no expense was spared.

There are decent nods to new and classic episodes. Mr Copper (from The Voyage of the Damned’) gets a mention, as does Clom and Calaufax (from ‘The Pirate Planet’). Also there are nods to other members of the Torchwood and Sarah Jane shows.

With all those ingredients, this episode could have been an absolute mess. It wasn’t, it was fantastic and easily one of the best, if not the best, episode of ‘new’ Doctor Who. The acting and the effects were just the tip of the iceberg.

When The Doctor finally gets inside the pocket universe, he gets into contact with all his friends and then Davros flickers onto the screen. We could have been in 1975, the terrifying voice and features would be giving kids nightmares for days! And that was just Ianto!

Then the ending! After landing, The Doctor sees Rose and as they run towards each other, a dalek comes around the corner and shoots The Doctor with a glancing shot. Jack appears and takes out the dalek, but it’s too late. As The Doctor is taken into the TARDIS, he regenerates – or does he? We don’t know until next week, because a rather camp TO BE COUNTIUED appeared on the screen. I’m sure many people screamed at the telly like I did!

Is he regenerating? I don’t know, I suspect not but who knows! It’s certainly going to be one long week. My head hurts now!

10/10

Next Week: Thousands of fangirls and boys shed tears as David Tennant DOES regenerate (maybe!)

'Journey's End' Trailer



The Doctor 'Regenerating'

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 11 - Turn Left

What a trailer that was! It had everything! The Doctor, Donna, Rose, Martha, Jack, Sarah-Jane, Gwen, Ianto, Luke, Harriett Jones, Daleks and The Kandyman! Okay maybe not The Kandyman but surely he can’t be far off a return?

Before the trailer, we had this new show about Donna and ‘turning left’, it was great! We were given a Doctor-lite story, in which The Doctor wasn’t really missed! It was a ‘What If’ story, What if Donna had never met The Doctor? Well the world would not be the same, put it that way!

Donna is tricked by a palm reader (Chipo Chung, who played Chanto in ‘Utopia’) as a ‘time beetle’ crawls on her back. We are then taken to the moment in which Donna ‘turned left’ and made her way to the company, in which the events of ‘The Runaway Bride’ came from. Instead, under pressure from her mother, she turns right and takes a job at another company.

It was a name drop heaven and I’m sure we are set for a few more surprises! We are presented with a series of familiar events, as The Doctor dies during the events of The Runaway Bride, without Donna there to help him (presumably some other bint was infected with the stuff that brought Donna on board the TARDIS in the first place). Then The Judoon take the hospital, Martha dies and instead of The Doctor, Sarah-Jane and her team of young kids try to prevent the disaster but end up dying as well. The Titanic crashes and blows up London. I didn’t really like that part, surely those refugees could have been put up in a hotel, b+b, holiday camps, caravans and even prisons. I just didn’t understand the ‘3 families per house’ bit, I would rather live in a tent to be honest!

The Adipose then pop up in America, which is where they should have gone in the first place, seeing as more people live there! Then we have the Torchwood team just about preventing the Sontarans but they end up dying and Jack is transported to the Sontaran homeworld, presumably to do some ‘cloning’ of his own!

How can I forget the return of Rose? She kept appearing and disappearing and seemed to be telling UNIT what to do. I wondered if it really was Rose, I don’t think it is, to be honest. It just didn’t seem like the Rose we know. Either way, we are set for two epic episodes!

Overall, it was a cleverly written episode, the last couple of minutes are just wonderful. It was an interesting concept to see how events would have differed if you had turned one way instead of another. It makes you think doesn’t it? Once again Catherine Tate was just wonderful and has surely shut up the critics. Including me!

9.5/10

Next Week: Jack counts heads and wonders whether or not he’s had as many people at the same time!

'The Stolen Earth' Trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 10 - Midnight

I suffered with first-watch syndrome again this week, as I didn’t particularly like this episode at first! But after a re-watch, I expelled my fears and enjoyed the episode!

This is the ‘Donna-lite’ story, with David Tennant getting a chance to do a story without a companion and I think this episode benefited from that refreshing change. Here we have The Doctor boarding a vehicle on its way out onto the surface of ‘Midnight’, a planet made of diamonds.

Guest stars include Doctor Who stalwart (and son of Patrick Troughton!), David Troughton, Lesley Sharp and some bint who used to be in EastEnders.

This was obviously the ‘money saving’ episode, with all the majority of the action taking place on one set. For the third episode running, we didn’t get to see what the ‘monster’ actually was, as it possessed Lesley Sharp. What followed was a masterclass of acting (or if you prefer, being childish!), as Sky (Sharp) copied everything that anyone said. One of the more truly terrifying moments was one she turned around and her face was just terrifying! We don’t need top SFX in Doctor Who to make it great!

In parts, the story seemed to drag on but I think, under the constraints, it was the best they could have produced. Credit must go to RTD for another great script. One aspect I did like about the episode, was when all the people turned on The Doctor. Its something we very rarely see and without a companion, he looked helpless. It got worse when he was possessed and I was worried for half a second that we could have lost him! Also the fact that nobody knew the hostess’ name was done well and said it all about the people on board.

Rose briefly appeared again and with a full return next week, in the ‘Doctor lite’ episode, things are starting to come to ahead with just 3 episodes to go. Here’s looking forward to ‘Turn Left’!

8/10

Next Week: Billie mistakes Catherine Tate to be her ex husband, the much maligned Chris Evans!

'Turn Left' trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 5 - The Poison Sky

I’ve got nothing but praise for the second part of this story, everything just seemed to be right. From the episode title to that ending, everything was as perfect as a Doctor Who episode should be.

After (doing the obvious) smashing the car window, to save Bernard Cribbins, (the best ever guest star in Doctor Who!) The Doctor heads back to the UNIT base and Donna heads to the TARDIS.

But as the Doctor tries to plead with the Sontarans, Mad Martha helps them to ‘transmat’ the TARDIS onto the Sontaran ship. Of course, The Doctor had all this planned, as was the glimpse of Rose on the TARDIS monitor, I think!

This episode was a reference heaven. From a mention of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart being a ‘fine man but he’s stuck in Peru’ to the Rutans and The Doctor’s ‘Are You My Mummy’ quip. It was all there!

Sadly Doctor Who still can’t do soldiers. British soldiers always wear their berets in the correct manner and never ‘retreat’ – they ‘withdraw’! By comparison, the Sontarans were done brilliantly. I enjoyed the interaction of them and that war chant, I think that Helen Raynor has finally shown us what the Sontarans are really about.

I don’t know what kind of home video RTD has got of the head of BBC commissioning, but the effects are once again, simply breathtaking. All those wobbly sets and plastic Dinosaurs are a thing of the past!

Back to the episode, as The Doctor twigs that Mad Martha, isn’t Martha and Donna goes around whacking Sontarans. Luke ‘the boy genius’ finds out that the Sontarans don’t need him and as The Doctor builds an ‘atmospheric converter’, in record time (?), he sets fire to the sky, removing all the poison gas, which as engulfed the earth.

The Doctor wants to become a suicide bomber but its Luke who transmats to the spaceship and replaces The Doctor, to blow up the ship and himself.

A wonderful two-parter, one which I’ll be watching over and over again. The Sontarans where simply superb and credit goes to Christopher Ryan.

9/10

The ending was unexpected to say the least. The Doctor, Donna and Martha being trapped in the TARDIS as it sets off into space. Who is waiting, yep, it’s The Doctor Daughter, but is she? Well, yes, she’s actually the Daughter of 5th Doc Peter Davison. I can see this is going to get confusing!

Next Week: The Doctor’s Daughter is set to become the ‘most perved’ by Doctor Who geeks, young and old!

'The Doctor's Daugther' Trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 1 - Partners In Crime

The long wait is finally over! After spending Christmas with Kylie, not literally, I can’t afford her, we arrive in the ever-so familiar surroundings of London and Catherine Tate’s Donna.

Now yours truly wasn’t happy when the news was announced that the world’s oldest teenager (no not Sophie Aldred!) was going to be back. I don’t like Catherine’s ‘humour’ at all. That said, after this episode, I’ll give her a chance!

The episode opened up with David Tennant’s Doctor investigating a company that sells diet pills. Donna, who has spent months tracking down ‘weird going-on’ in the hope of finding The Doctor, is also there. But our main characters keep missing each other, it was quite amusing stuff.

Eventually the pair meet, on the run from villous ‘supernanny’ Miss Foster (Sarah Lancashire). She is behind the plot, which involves making seriously cute creatures called ‘Adipose’, out of human fat.

The episode has spilt the fans into two. Those who love it and those who dislike it. Personally I love it. I shuddered when I first saw the Adipose and wondered what was going through RTD’s head. But the Adipose weren’t overused, in fact they weren’t really the villains. Expect cuddly Adipose’s, coming to a shop near you this Christmas!

It was a decent start and the 8 million viewers certainly was a great start. Lets hope that it can be sustained. The episode also had a new opening theme. It was similar to the one used for Voyage of the Damned but tweaked a little and it was a lot better! The affects also keep getting better. Apparently the Adipose where made using the same technogly that was used in the Lord of the Rings films. Thankfully the Adipose where a lot better than anything in LOTR!

Catherine Tate did look a lot better since her last appearance. David Tennant was at his usual best, Sarah Lancashire was a convincing alien-nanny but it was Bernard Cribbins that stole the show. Every scene he was in was fantastic. The last scene of the episode was pure Doctor Who magic. You won’t get that in Star Trek!

And how can I forget the surprise appearance of Rose*. No one but the actors and some of the production team, knew about it. What a fantastic surprise! Sadly, the newspapers seem determined to spoil everything else but lets hope they haven’t. As for the reason she was there and why she disappeared? I’ve no idea, isn’t that wonderful? We’ll have to wait to find out!

(*Scroll down to see her return!)

8/10

Next is the ‘Fires of Pompeii’, an episode shot entirely on location in Italy. The trailer looks spectacular but will it live up to the hype?

'The Fires of Pompeii' Trailer



Rose Return's Clip