Episode #202 : Midnight

"Ah, I'll be fine. Taking a big space truck with a bunch of strangers across a diamond planet called Midnight... What could possibly go wrong?"

Episode #202:         Midnight.
Companions:           10th Doctor and Donna Noble.
Air Date:                 14th June 2008.

The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble go to the leisure planet of Midnight for a simple, relaxing vacation. However, life with the Doctor can never be that simple, and things go horribly wrong for the Doctor when he decides to go off on a bus trip to see the Sapphire Waterfall, starting with the bus shutting down. When a mysterious entity infiltrates the shuttle bus, no one is to be trusted. Not even the Doctor himself.

I'm never really sure what to make of this episode. On one hand nothing really happens and it just trundles along. On the other hand, it is delightfully disturbing and creepy. I think the problem is that you never actually see what the monster looks like or learn what it actually is. Less is often more but not in this case. As such I never really know how I should view the episode.

Partly I think that the problem is that tension is built up by having several characters trapped in an enclosed space paranoid and shouting at one another soon loses its power. It just becomes annoying instead after a while. I have the same opinion of similar situations in other disaster movies and shows.

Donna Noble only appears twice during this story as it focuses exclusively on the Doctor's adventure on board the train. In the next episode it swaps and Donna gets an adventure without the Doctor. As I understand it, this was done as a cost cutting endeavour and still occasionally happens in later seasons.

The episode features David Troughton, son of the second Doctor Patrick Troughton. He had previously appeared as King Peladon in The Curse of Peladon.

I'll leave this one to your devices to decide what you think of it.

Episode #137 : Attack of the Cybermen

"The TARDIS, when working properly, is capable of many amazing things. Not unlike myself."

Episode 137:   Attack of the Cybermen.
Companions:   6th Doctor and Peri.
Air Date:         5th to 12th January 1985.

The TARDIS is lured to Earth in 1985 by a distress call sent by Lytton, who has made contact with a group of Cybermen based in London's sewers. The Doctor and Peri are then captured and forced to take Lytton and the Cybermen in the TARDIS to the Cybermen's home planet Telos. The Cybermen have stolen a time vessel from another race and plan to change history by crashing Halley's Comet into Earth and obliterating it before it can bring about the demise of their original home world, Mondas, in 1986.

Contary to popular opinion, there is a lot to like about Attack of the Cybermen especially if you are a fan of the classic show. This story acts as a sort of prequel and sequel to the 2nd Doctor adventure Tomb of the Cybermen and the 1st Doctor's final adventure; The Tenth Planet, and carries lots of references to enhance the story. Some feel that that is a bad thing but for me the continuity (such as it is) is what makes this story something more than your typical Doctor Who adventure. Attack of the Cybermen explains more about the tombs discovered on Telos, has the return of Lytton and the Cyber-Controller. It also sees the return, albeit brief, of the TARDIS with a functioning chameleon circuit and Totter's junkyard where everything first started.

The Doctor has come a ways since we last saw him. No more psychotic, a little more sedate and back to being a personality that we can relate to as the Doctor. There is a little violence that wouldn't normally be there such beating up one of Lytton's fake police and blasting some Cybermen, but you get the sense this is part of who this personality is now. It doesn't bother me and makes a change.

These Cybermen seem a bit weaker than what we are used to as well. Some seem to die easily to bullets and others have their heads knocked off rather literally. Oddly, the Cyber-Controller has put on a few pounds since we last saw him and it looks a bit odd. There is also the incidents of mouldy, insane Cybermen on Telos which are never explained as far as I could see.

There is much more to this story than most fans see I think, and with the intervening years this one is quite a gem. Just ignore any small plot holes and enjoy.