Episode #205 : The Next Doctor

The "Next" Doctor: It's strange, though. I talk of Cybermen... from the stars... and you don't blink, Mr. Smith.
The Doctor: Ah, don't blink, whatever you do, don't blink, remember that? The blinking and the statues and... Sally and the angels? No?
The "Next" Doctor: You're a very odd man.
The Doctor: Mmm... I still am.

Episode #205:      The Next Doctor.
Companions:        The 10th Doctor.
Air Date:              25th December  2008.

Christmas 1851, and Cybermen stalk Victorian London. The Tenth Doctor discovers a spate of mysterious deaths, and he's surprised to meet another Doctor! Are two Doctors enough to stop the rise of the CyberKing?

The Doctor is travelling alone again and winds up at Christmas in 1851 just in time to be drawn into the evil schemes of the "Pete's World" Cybermen who have escaped the Void by somehow using Dalek technology. They now plan to convert the Earth using the villainous Mercy Hartigan. On the way he encounters someone he thinks is his future self but ultimately isn't. Much running ensues, the mystery solved and a rather obvious Cyberking is stopped.

The Next Doctor is a story where I cannot decide whether I like it or not. On one had I find the adventure somewhat lackluster and with a glaring historical issue at the end, but at the same time it's not a bad little romp. Some aspects obviously trigger a little OCD in me I guess but I'll come to that shortly. Either way i have decided that since I cannot decide it is unfair to mark the episode down so it gets an average rating from me.

Jackson Lake, the supposed "next Doctor" is quite a good character though I don't see much use for his companion Rossita. It almost makes me wish that Lake had been the next incarnation as until his amnesia/fugue is fixed he makes quite a good Doctor personality. Making him a confused personality thinking he is a Time Lord is a clever idea but once unraveled it feels like a bit of a let down and you almost wish he was the next incarnation of the Doctor.

So, jumping ahead to the historical issue that I mentioned. Well, we have a two hundred foot high Cyberman battle mech stomping all over London. Even Lake says that it will be mentioned of in the history books for years to come. But it wasn't and it really irks me that such a thing was included. Doctor Who is more subtle than that. Even when we had the Loch Ness Monster popping up in London the Doctor does make a point that humans are self deceiving at times. But this wasn't a couple hundred people seeing something in the river Thames, this is thousands of people seeing a giant robot battle suit. Now, this brings me to events from the 11th Doctor... did the reboot of the universe erase these events from ever happening in the first place? It's all timey-whimey again.

One last comment though that does make this episode better for me than other Christmas specials is that it doesn't make too much of a point of it being Christmas in the episode. There are a couple references and then they focus on the adventure, and just get on with it.