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 9 - Forest of the Dead

When I first watched this episode, I was disappointed. But I always make a point of watching an episode at least twice and you know what? I wasn’t that disappointed, in fact I loved it, well sort of!

We picked up from where we left off, as the ‘Space Ghosts’ run riot all over The Library and Donna is trapped inside a massive computer. I was disappointed to see that River was quite possibly a love interest for the Doctor. We really need to move away from that stuff for a while. It can only get more confusing when Rose returns.

I was also annoyed that The Doctor’s real name is now a sticking point. Questions will be asked and people will want them answered. A subject that as been glossed over in the past, with a “John Smith” or “Just Doctor”, will become the main talking point for all fickle Doctor Who fans.

However I was impressed in how the episode came together in the end. Steven Moffat’s attention to detail is incredible, even though he has had a dig at Bernice Summerfield and ripped off the Space Ghost from Scooby Doo!

Tennant has come into his own this series, hopefully one of Moffat’s first tasks will be to keep David on for at least another year, which is something I think will happen. I’m hoping we’ll see River again, if only to give Alex Kingston some work! On a similar note, I was really disappointed that Steve Pemberton wasn’t given a bigger role. Although I’m glad he turned out to be a good guy.

I’m sure we all suspected that River would ‘die’ in this concluding part. And she did! But we had some old Doctor Who magic sprinkled on it, as The Doctor ‘saved’ her by putting her into the computer, so she could live with all her friends. That particular part was just superb.

I feel I must write a stern letter to a newspaper, who had previewed the episode by saying, “Donna is trapped in a Matrix-style world”, obviously the writer hadn’t taken into account that some of the story behind The Matrix is basically a rip-off of the Tom Baker episode ‘The Deadly Assassin. Ah, never mind!

Here’s looking forward to next week, from the trailer I’m not sure though!

9/10

Next Week: Lesley Sharp gets confused as she finds out that Christopher Eccelston isn’t The Doctor anymore!

'Midnight' Trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 8 - Silence in the Library

From this point, this story can go two ways. It can either be the best two-parter we’ve had or it could be a huge let down. It’s finely balanced.

Steven Moffat penned this episode, it should be interesting to see if he carries on his trademark ‘dark’ stories when he takes over as executive producer in 2010. It wasn’t easy to spot ‘the line from Coupling’ this time, I think it was the “I’m thick, my head is too small” line. With me being the only one to spot his version of RTD’s ‘gay agenda’, I feel quite proud.

We had a possible pop at Paul Cornell in this episode. Moffat wrote in archaeologist ‘River Song’ who seems to know The Doctor. The Doctor didn’t have the foggiest who she is (as she apparently, met him in the future), so he quipped “I laugh at archaeologists”. Whether this is a reference to Cornell’s Bernice Summerfield, only he knows!

Back to the episode, where D+D land on a planet which doubles as the biggest library in the universe. Basically, its a similar plotline to the Bernice Summerfield audio ‘Timeless Passages’, hmmm I think I’m seeing another ‘agenda’ here!

Our duo are warned about ‘the shadows’ which are infected with ‘Vashta Nerada’, which eats human flesh in seconds. But not clothes, apparently! We get to meet River Song (Alex Kingston) and her team, headed by businessman Lux (Steve Pemberton). Meanwhile a little girl seems to be having dreams about the library and The Doctor. It seems she is controlling it and a visiting psychologist (Colin Salmon) seems to know she’s telling the truth and tells her that the library is ‘real’.

As the members of Lux’s expedition are gobbled up as quickly than any type food in Vanessa Feltz’s fridge, Donna is transmatted on board the TARDIS, only to disappear quicker than she appears. She pops up later as one of the faces on a information statue. Thing is, all those faces are donated by dead people. Whoops!

A pretty decent cast pulled the episode through, credit must go to Eve Newton who played the little girl. The episode was very dark and creepy, the Scooby Doo-style ‘space ghosts’ really helped but I wasn’t on the edge of my seat. It seemed that this story was designed to be 3 parts, rather than 2 parts. But what Moffat does well, is to develop storylines. I’m confident the second part will be fantastic, as we get to the business end of the series.

As for who River Song is and the fate of Donna? I’ve no idea, but its going to be fun finding out, isn’t it?

8/10

Next Time: Donna is found alive and well, sipping tea and chatting to her cousin – Melanie Bush!

Before I sign off, a word on the mid series trailer (which you can view below). Okay it’s wasn’t brilliant, it seemed that only the Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead and the final two episodes were spliced together. Rose is back (with a gun), as are the Daleks (again!) and there is a figure shrouded in darkness, it seems to have a Dalek base and a blue eye. I think all bets are off folks!

'Forest of the Dead' Trailer


Mid series trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 7 - The Unicorn and the Wasp

A giant wasp, a vicar and a brassy thief known as ‘The Unicorn’, all of whom are playing out a game. No it isn’t a seedy club, it’s the latest Doctor Who episode!

‘The Unicorn and The Wasp’ is set in 1926 as The Doctor and Donna gatecrash a garden party - they run into Agatha Christie (Fenella Woolgar). Its worth mentioning that Felicity Kendal (The Good Life and other various crap comedies, which Americans seem to find funny), Tom Goodman-Hill (The druggy copper in ‘Ideal’ and the bumbling government bloke in ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentleman’) guest star alongside Christopher Benjamin, who previously appeared in the classic Doctor Who episodes, ‘Inferno’ (as Sir Keith Gold) and ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ (as Jago).

The episode itself is almost a parody of the ‘murder mystery’ genre, keeping with the Agatha Christie theme. It’s definitely the most comedic 45 minutes of the new series and this episode benefits from that refreshing change.

The story, thanks to its ‘Cludeo’ plot, centres around the murders of a number of characters. When it seems that one of the guests can turn into a ‘Vespiform’ to kill, none of the guests have a decent alibi.

Enter Agatha Christie. Fenella Woolgar plays her magnificently and at times upstages The Doctor, which is very rarely done. Apparently, Fenella had met the Grandson of the novelist, to get a feel for the character. Credit must go to the writer of the episode, Gareth Roberts, for doing a great job with this as well.

Top moments include, everything with Agatha in, The Doctor getting poisoned and Donna trying to help him. The Flashbacks of Colonel Hugh being a dirty old man and The Doctor in a Belgian forest!

However, the monster’s transformation has been criticised by the fans. Although I have no problem with it to be honest. It is an alien wasp after all!

We eventually learn that it was the Vicar ‘Whodunit’ and that he is the son of a Vespiform who had his wicked way with Lady Eddison (Felicity Kendal) 40 years ago in India, the mucky cow! So after more or less solving the mystery, Agatha gives chase to the Vespiform, after learning that it was her books that gave the wasp the information to kill. But its Donna, who continues her murdering streak (after killing that poor fat woman in the opening episode) by throwing the necklace, which our Thief – The Unicorn (Felicity Jones) was after, into a lake. The link (which had materialised between Agatha and the Vespiform) was severed but Agatha was to lose her memory and go missing for 10 days. Which is what happened in real life, apart from the alien wasps of course!

As an episode, it’s a lot of fun, not to be taken too seriously. It’s certainly better than its series 3 counterpart, 42, anyway!

8.5/10

Next Time: The Doctor and Donna visit the largest library in the Universe, which seems to be deserted. I wonder if they mean the centre of London? You’ll be met with the same level of friendliness anyway.

As mentioned, it was more of a comedy this week, which is precisely what's on next week, as its Eurovision! Which means no Doctor Who for 2 weeks. Cheers BBC, what do we pay our TV licences for again?

'Silence In The Library' Trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 6 - The Doctor's Daughter

By the time young, teenage Doctor Who fans had wiped away the stickiness from their television screens, thrown away those tissues and unlocked their bedroom doors, we had witnessed a momentous occasion in Doctor Who.

Georgia Moffett, the real life daughter of Peter Davison, plays ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’. Picking up right off from last week, The Doctor’s severed hand is the reason they land on the planet Messaline. We learn later that it had locked on to Jenny’s DNA, much later from when they arrived. Confusing? You bet!

You are in either two camps with this episode. You either love it or hate it! Personally I think its okay, I neither love it nor hate it (I’m awkward that way)! There where some great moments. The Hath where brilliantly done, Donna (again), Martha and Tennant, especially, have easily justified RTD’s casting abilities.

But it was Ms Moffet that really impressed. She is most notable for playing the tearaway daughter of Insp. Sam Nixon in The Bill and daughter of Ozias Harding (or Coronation Street’s serial murderer ‘Tricky Dicky’ - Richard Hillman, if you prefer) in ‘Where The Heart Is’. So I suppose playing The Doctor’s daughter was a stroll in the park!

But wasn’t she good? As the episode went on she grew more and more into the role. I don’t know what the future holds but I’m sure she’ll be back. Before anyone even attempts to ask, no she isn’t the mother of Susan! As she was ‘born’ as a result of the actions of Tenth Doctor, the first Doctor wouldn’t know anything about it.

The episode itself was done well. I suppose it could be confusing if you haven’t seen much of Doctor Who. All this ‘timey-wimey’ nonsense! The planet holds two factions of people. Humans (again!) and fish-humanoids called ‘The Hath’. Both these factions had been at war for generations, in search of the ‘source’, which would give them control of the planet.

Unknown to them of course, they had only been at war for a week. The heavy dead count and a readily available cloning machine, meant that everyone barely survived 12 hours. Credit must go to guest star Nigel Terry as Cobb, the leader of the humans, for a great star turn.

As Magnificent Martha catches up with D+D and Jenny, they smash the ‘source’, which turns out to be a device to make the climate on the surface of the planet, breathable. But as Cobb thinks he has the last word by shooting Jenny, its David Tennant who shows precisely why he is considered to be one of our best talents. His emotional speech was perfectly delivered, I suppose Stephen Greenhorn (the writer) deserves some praise too!

So as this series keeps up this consistent run, I’m excited! I’m sure the future of Jenny, who sort-of regenerated just after The Doctor left, has already been planned by RTD.

8/10

Next Week – Donna, a working class London girl, pretends she reads Agatha Christie novels and watches those boring murder mysteries on ITV!

'The Unicorn and the Wasp' 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 4 - The Sontaran Stratagem

I generally judge a good Doctor Who episode on how much I can moan about it. In this instance, it was almost a perfect 45 minutes of Doctor Who!

Okay, despite the UNIT boys wearing their berets wrong, I found it thoroughly entertaining! I’m not sure what Ryan Sampson was playing it, with that accent, but he played the kid-genius-you-just-want-to-slap, with perfection!

That’s where the story begins. Basically the kid genius has designed these new carbon-cutting devices, which have a free sat-nav system and clothes vouchers, apparently. Yep, you’ve guessed it – Primark! Anyway, despite being a qualified Doctor for less than a year, UNIT officer Martha Jones rings the Doctor to help out.

It was a rather clever plot to be honest. Gone are the days where the aliens would just turn up from nowhere without any explanation of how they got there. This is a lot better.

We learn that Martha is now engaged to Tom Milligan (the bloke who helped her out in ‘The Last of The Timelords’). I say engaged, I reckon she’s got some blackmail on the go, as he won’t know about the whole ‘lost year’ thing! So after a few well placed awkward moments, our trio head to a mobile base, which has been set up outside the ATMOS Sat-Nav factory.

The factory’s workers don’t seem to be in control of their capabilities, so Martha investigates. The Doctor goes to find Luke, where Ross’s (the young solider) description of the academy (which Luke runs) as a ‘type of Hitler youth camp’ is bang on. I suppose the Catholic Church have their pick of future Pope’s then! Donna buggers of home for a chat and a brew with ‘Gramps’!

Back to Luke’s, where The Doctor stumbles across a teleport and is transported to the Sontaran ship but as he quickly travels back, he is followed by their leader – General Staal. I was mightily impressed with these Sontarans, in fact, I would go as far as saying they are the best ever! The Doctor and Rambo Ross escape and as Staal fails to kill them with the Sat-Nav, they arrive at Donna’s house.

Meanwhile back at the base, Martha is kidnapped by the badly dressed soldiers and cloned, into ‘Mad Martha’ (I presume)! You would of thought that being on the run for a non-existence year, Martha would be more cautious, wouldn’t you? So as our MM totally ignores the Doctor’s warning, she lets events take their place and the sky is filled with poison gas, from the ATMOS machines. And as Bernard Cribbins steals the show again (It’s them aliens Donna!), he is trapped in one of the poisonous cars…

I hope next weeks’ will be just as good. I’ve normally panned Helen Raynor’s episodes, but she’s done a good job here! The effects where superb once again, it was nice to see the old Sontaran spaceships! And did anyone notice the ‘Turn Left’ references? You heard it here first, folks!

9/10

Don’t forget to watch the confidential too, they are very informative! And can I just say – Helen Raynor – any chance I could take you out for a drink?

Next Week – General Staal is caught in his underpants, ‘up to no good’ with Donna’s Mum.

The Poison Sky Trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 3 - The Planet of The Ood

The Ood return in this one part story, set on the ‘Oodsphere’. Last seen in ‘The Impossible Planet’ and ‘The Satan Pit’, the Ood are a race of squid-type humanoids who are quite happy to be slaves for the humans. In this episode, ‘Planet of The Ood’, we learn all about the Ood and why they are in captivity.

The Doctor and Donna land on the beautiful ice world, where they find a dying Ood who seems to be suffering from the telepathic state in which the Ood in the previous stories suffered from and subsequently attacked the humans. They then infiltrate the base, ran by Blackadder’s Tim Mcinerney.

It seems Captain Darling has spent the last 15 years sat in a dark room eating cakes but in this episode, he arrives to sort out the Ood’s ‘red-eye’ disease. Of course everything goes tits-up as the Ood break out and wage war on the dopey humans. Darling is concerned that the whole warehouse of Ood, ready to be shipped across the galaxy and sold, is contaminated.

After a decent start, I was quite disappointed with the episode. They seemed to be preaching an anti-slavery message. I don’t think any kind of political statement has any place in Doctor Who, some of the time they obstruct the story. Most of the time, it’s a load of bollocks! Something which had me up in arms, was the bit where The Doctor asked Donna ‘who do you think makes your clothes.’ Well Doctor, is it the everyday, working class peoples’ fault that some poor foreign mush isn’t paid much for making clothes? Who do you think made your suit and the coat Janis Joplin ‘gave’ you? I bet it was some poor alien bastard with 160 kids to feed!

Then the bit where Captain Darling turned into an Ood was a little bit OTT and put me off the entire episode. It wasn’t that bad, well not in a Torchwood way, anyway! It seemed the episode was building up to something that wasn’t there. The Ood quote at the end had me thinking though. Lets hope that The Doctor’s ‘song’ will last for a while longer! We are getting through The Doctors too quickly!

However, lets go over the good points: Donna keeps on improving, not sure about the West Ham quote though! The Ood looked great, the battle scenes were terrific and that scenery was just magnificent. Now if only they could have kept away from the ‘Slavery is wrong’ theme!

6.5/10

Phew, lets end on a good note. THAT TRAILER FOR NEXT WEEKS LOOKS AMAZING! ROLL ON SATURDAY!

Next Week: Jamie Oliver is revealed to be an undercover Sontaran warrior and he has been secretly plotting to be making our kids grow up into little weaklings, by eating crap food.

'The Sontaran Stratagem' Trailer

Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 2 - The Fires of Pompeii

Well, what can you say about this episode? Visually it was stunning, the story was well written, the acting was top notch and the story shifted from comedy to a scary moment, like only a Doctor Who episode can.

Filmed on location in Italy, The Doctor and Donna think there’re in Rome but in fact they are in Pompeii – on the day it’s buried in ash. Add to that the molten lava monsters and a sisterhood that suspiciously reminds you of the Tom Baker serial ‘The Brain of Morbius’, means we are set for a good ride.

Phil Davies guest stars as a soothsayer, a creepy one at that! He tells The Doctor ‘she is returning’ and Donna has ‘something on her back’. Oh and the bees keep disappearing too! Hmmm I think we may be on to something, in terms of a story arc!

One great concept with Doctor Who, is that they can play around with historical events without spoiling them. Apart from The Doctor being responsible for many disasters, such as the great fires of Rome and London and now Pompeii!

So as Phil Davies is working with our rock monsters, no not McFly – they’re rubbish, to take over the world, The Doctor and Donna are stuck in the middle, as they try to investigate and quickly, as the mountain is about to blow up!

The plot becomes quite simple in the end, with everything fitting nicely into place. But one criticism I do have is the continuation of ‘The Doctor is God’ theme. What with Christianity becoming more maligned and ignored in this day and age, we really don’t want Doctor Who to become a rallying point for Atheists.

Apart from that, it’s an excellent episode. The next episode – Planet of The Ood, looks good. Lets hope it can fill out that promise!

9/10

'Planet of The Ood' 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

It's Back!

Just five days to go until the new series of Doctor Who and I’m so excited! This series promises to be yet another epic following on from last years’ Master story arc will this year’s top it? Lets hope so.

Catherine Tate joins the Doctor, as dippy Donna, on board the TARDIS in episode opener ‘Partners In Crime’, which will be screened on BBC1 at 6.20pm. Don’t miss out (Raquel if Corrie’s in it!).

You’ll be able to read my thoughts on each episode as they air and I might have something else planned as well! I bet you’re on tenderhooks, aren’t you? Ok, maybe not!

But for now here are some previews of series 4, enjoy!

Preview 1



Preview 2



'Campire' Trailer